A little while ago I visited Colchester castle and Hollytrees museum, where I viewed their collection of shoes and leather and related artefacts. When I was there I was given the cotact details of a woman who could show me round the private store to look at an extensive array of costume, including shoes!
Having visited this contact at the store, she let me photograph anything I wanted, which included dancing shoes, which she said were a lot different ot simple evening shoes, as they posessed a strap and button/buckle to allow for extra tight fit when swinging to riotous jazz music!
The shoes were all exquisitely made except for one pair which were slightly less great quality (still far better than anything we but for around the same price today in debenhams or topshop etc!). Some were made in Colchester and pretty much all of them were completely made in britain, with the exception of silks and beading probably done in the far east.
I also looked at some fantastic beaded dresses which just oozed an energetic previous life, completely tailored for dancing and for exaggerating movement. These dresses were particularly well hidden and protected, because of their value, and also because they were built for the purpose of dancing, and intended to be worn maybe 5 times in their life. This resulted in them being hung up for most of their lives, meaning that the delicate silk chiffon would tear under the weight of the heavy glass beads. Similarly, one pair of shoes, a silver painted pair of cloth shoes, had been danced into oblivion, with absolutely no care for their well being. Actually looking at them made me sad to think that their future wasn't even considered, that they would be in museums or in galleries as a nostalgic item, emulating a whole era, and defining an entire age. One pair of shoes had even been badly recovered because they had worn out so much!
Below a still from the Great Gatsby movie...
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