Didn’t have much time to visit all the wonderful museums that Toronto has to offer, so when I asked for a recommendation to something more special I was directed to Toronto’s Bata Shoe Museum. It is, as you’ve probably guessed from the name, about shoes – or “footware” – with collections from different cultures, places and periods in history. Sonja Bata, the founder from the Bata Shoe Company, has been able to build quite a nice collection with some interesting twists that makes this museum a pleasure.
The official museum website introduces :
Discover the treasures of North America’s charming and surprising shoe museum. Hundreds of shoes (from a collection numbering over 10,000) are on exhibit in architect Raymond Moriyama’s award-winning four-storey structure.
The Museum celebrates the style and function of footwear in four impressive galleries. Footwear on display ranges from Chinese bound foot shoes and ancient Egyptian sandals to chestnut-crushing clogs and glamourous platforms. Over 4,500 years of history and a collection of 20th-century celebrity shoes are reflected in the semi-permanent exhibition, All About Shoes. Three other galleries feature changing exhibitions, so there’s always something new to see.
So let’s take a walk around the museum…
As for the shoes, don’t ask why but we’ll start with a quick example from Jewish shoes…
And move on to the rest… see how many of those – if at all – you can make out.
Isn’t this cute? Aren’t you all also tired of the same “natural history” “space” and “science” museums? Wish we had more of those special themed museums. Recommended if you’re in the area.
You can follow the museum on Twitter.
Very few museums are as amazing as this one. It reveals the history of Bata shoes and shows that Bata is changing her designs as per the new fashion.