Step into history at Toronto shoe museum

TORONTO — They're the most unusual of sole mates — pop singer Elton John, an ancient Egyptian nobleman and 19th-century Chinese women with bound feet.

What ties them together is the Bata Shoe Museum, where their shoes are on display.

The downtown Toronto museum would be heaven for the likes of Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines known for her vast shoe collection. But you don't need to be a fashionista, or even care much about shoes, to enjoy the museum's 4,000 years of footwear.

The displays give an intimate glimpse of people and cultures through what they put on their feet, from Elton John's gaudy, silver-and-red platform boot; the toddler-sized silk shoes of Chinese women with bound feet; and an Egyptian's sandals from 2500 B.C.

The museum opened in 1995 in a specially designed, four-story building that vaguely resembles a shoebox. It was founded by Sonja Bata who started collecting historic shoes in the 1940s during travels with her husband, whose family, based in Toronto, runs the multinational Bata shoe company.

Information

Bata Shoe Museum: The museum is at 327 Bloor St. W., Toronto; 416-979-7799 or www.batashoemuseum.com.

Tourism Toronto: www.torontotourism.com/visitor or 800-499-2514.

The museum has collected the shoes of the rich and famous. They include, says museum spokeswoman Elizabeth O'Grady, "John Lennon's Beatle boot, a silver pump which belonged to Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford's cowboy boots, Lady Diana's 'replacement' pumps (she had a spare pair for every pair she wore, in case anything happened), Pablo Picasso's zebra boots and a pair of shoes which belonged to Winston Churchill."

There's even a pair of Napoleon's black silk socks, worn by the French emperor when he languished in exile on a remote Southern Atlantic island in the early 1800s.

The simpler life is shown, too, with 19th-century Native Americans' hand-beaded moccasins and old-fashioned Japanese winter boots made from rice straw.

Some exhibits are sobering. The 19th-century, hand-embroidered, silk shoes worn by Chinese women with bound feet are staggeringly small. Only about 4 inches long, they are a mute testimony to how the women's feet, and lives, were constrained.

Others displays are light-hearted. One gallery is decorated to resemble an 18th-century ballroom, all gilt and mirrors, to showcase dozens of lavish silk and rhinestone shoes worn by French noblewomen. Called "The Charm of Rococo," it's one of the temporary exhibits at the gallery and runs until June.

But don't worry if you miss it. The museum has more than 10,000 items, with only 700 to 1,000 displayed at any one time in rotating exhibits, so you can always step into history.

Kristin Jackson: kjackson@seattletimes.com or 206-464-2271.