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Shoes: Pleasure & Pain – the fabulous V&A Exhibition

The latest exhibition at the V&A is pleasure and pain all rolled into one. If you are a lover of shoes, or embroidery, or historical costume, or boots or are a collector of shoes (as I am sure a few of us are) then this is the exhibition for you.
The exhibition displays the fabulous, exquisite pieces like sweets in the window of an exclusive Parisian Chocolate shop. Each pair staged to be admired.
The shoes are grouped in collections, each inspired by a theme of – ‘fashion’, ‘obsession’, ‘cinema’, ‘showing a bit of leg’, ‘shoes to entice’, ‘fit for a king’, ‘Royalty’. All truly yummy. Here are just a few of the enticing goodies on display. Enjoy.

The Glass Slipper from the 2015 Disney Movie ‘Cinderella’, as worn by Lily James.
Designed by Sandy Powell.
The red ballet shoes as worn in the 1948 movie ‘The Red Shoes’

 

Shoes fit for a king
Men’s Mojari shoes, India 1800 – Cotton, silk, gilded silver thread embroidery.
Possibly owned by the Nawab of Awadh.

Such tiny shoes for an adult not a child.

Shoes for Bound feet, China 1740 – silk, sequins, metal thread embroidery, linen and leather.
Popular footwear in Han Chinese society.

Here are some shoes worn by British Royalty – Queen Victoria and the Duchess of Cambridge; the French Royalty or rather the mistress of Louis XV; and Celebrity Royalty – Kylie Minogue’s Prada killer heels and Carrie’s famous Jimmy Choo’s from Sex in the City.

Shoes fit for a Queen, a future Queen and Carrie’s from ‘Sex in the City’

There is something for everyone. I visited with the notion that I was about to spend a few hours looking at lots of scrummy shoes, but it was so much more! I left, my mind buzzing with embroidery, textures of fabrics and leather, colour combinations and beading. Visit if you can. The exhibition is on until the 31st January 2016.

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Hand Embroidery Samples 12 ….. Raised Chain Band Stitch

This stitch was a new one to me, and now I love it. Raised Chain Band consists of a column of parallel stitches which are then interwoven with a second thread – the woven stitch sits on top, proud of the fabric. A very effective stitch, the variations are endless. This sample was created on Irish Linen.

The following experimental sample was created on Mulberry Bark Cloth and stitched with Perle cotton, DMC stranded embroidery thread, variegated hand dyed wool and coats cotton 50 weight sewing thread.  Maintaining an even tension takes serious concentration – it pays off with a fab run of stitches.

 

 

There are a multitude of ways to create variation in this stitch – the obvious being the variety of threads and colours used – but it can also be found in altering the balance of thread thicknesses between the parallel and woven stitches; the placing of the woven stitch (to one side, leaving it central or letting it meander along the run of stitch); and playing with the columns of parallel stitches – varying the width of stitch and the size of the gap or interval between the stitches.
This Embroidery course has been a joy to take part in.  I have learned so much.  I hope you have enjoyed looking at my samples and are inspired to experiment yourself.
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Hand Embroidery Samples 11 ….. Pekinese Stitch

This stitch, at first glance, looks relatively simple to do –  back stitch with a second thread looped through. The key to a good finish is maintaining a constant tension to create even loops – not as easy as you think.
This sample on Irish Linen was created using weaving silk, sari waste silk yarn, hand dyed variegated wool and hand dyed perle cotton yarn.

The following experimental  sample was created on pages from an old book (three pages layered and machine stitched onto calico), using a range of Anchor stranded embroidery threads.

 

This is not as easy as it looks to create. Have a go yourself and experiment.