FASHION Magazine
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Manolo Blahnik on His Sex and the City Fame and His Exhibit at the Bata Shoe Museum
“I had a divine shoe today,” says legendary footwear designer Manolo Blahnik, talking about his work as if it were a spectacular meal. Blahnik is on the phone from outside Milan, where he’s visiting a factory that is working on an upcoming collection. He tells me that it’s the first clear day after a long […]
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Sonja Bata, Canadian Style Icon and Founder of Bata Shoe Museum Dies at 91
Sonja Bata fell head over heels for shoes in the while travelling the world in the 1940s and discovered her passion for collecting “rare and traditional” shoes. Since then, she built a collection of over 13,000 shoes, spanning over 4,500 years of footwear from all over the world. After collecting 10,000 pairs of shoes in her […]
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Inside Bata Shoe Museum’s 20th anniversary party
Last night, one of Toronto’s architectural gems was done up to the nines in celebration of 20 years at the helm of shoe history. Opened in 1995, the Bata Shoe Museum, is still the only footwear-dedicated museum worldwide, housing everything from prehistoric clogs to poisonous heels and adding glittery glam rock platforms to the mix […]
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Inside Bata Shoe Museum’s Out of the Box opening party: 19 photos of partygoers embracing the century’s definitive shoe
Photography by Ryan Emberley Heels may always take top fashion honours, but sneakers are most definitely the shoes of the last century. On Thursday night, they were officially inducted into shoe history with the opening of Bata Shoe Museum’s Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture, the first exhibit of its kind in North America. Beginning with ultimate function’s first pair made in 1873 (they were called plimsoles at the time), the exhibit features everything from the iconic— Nike Dunk Supremes—to the hyper fashionable—Pierre Hardy’s Poworama sneakers.
Matching the exhibit’s out of the box theme, the museum had Toronto-born and internationally lauded industrial designer Karim Rashid, who is known to collect a sneaker or two himself, design the exhibit. In signature monochrome (this time it was head-to-toe white) Rashid kicked off the exhibit alongside the museum’s iconic founder, Sonja Bata and FASHION’s editor in chief, Bernadette Morra. After taking in a break dancing performance from Unity Charity, the crowd, which included persistent girl about town, Jen Kirsch and recent Come Date With Me Canada bachelorette Gail McInnes, hiked up three flights of stairs to take in the exhibit. To those who hiked in heels, we salute you.
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Inside the Bata Shoe Museum’s Roger Vivier retrospective opening party: Champagne flutes and many a pilgrim buckle
Photography by Tom Sandler Last night, Toronto’s Bata Shoe Museum opened its latest exhibit, a retrospective of Parisian shoe designer Roger Vivier, with a glittering fête complete with champagne flutes and many a pilgrim buckle. The exhibit follows the designer’s career from his couture-style creations for Christian Dior in the 1950s to his legendary pilgrim-buckle flats made famous by the likes of Catherine Deneuve in the swinging ‘60s and beyond. Italian-born designer Bruno Frisoni, who helms the label in the present day, was there to toast to the exhibit, alongside our editor-in-chief Bernadette Morra (donning—what else?—pilgrim-buckled silver flats), Alexandra Weston, Jeanne Beker, Marilyn Denis and the museum’s grand dame, Sonja Bata, whose star shone brighter than ever with her lively opening remarks.