'Til Ten

One of the cool things about volunteering is that sometimes I get to attend cool events with people much cooler than I. Last night was one of these times - I volunteered @ the 'Til Ten event @ The Bata Shoe Museum. This was the first in what will hopefully become a series of late openings by the museum to give visitors a chance to see the collection in a new way. There were drinks [including a signature martini], a DJ, food [although I didn't see any of that and had to come home and stuff my face with crumpets], performances [more on that later] and of course, the shoes! Last night The BSM revealed two new exhibits - some new additions to the celebrity shoes and an exhibit on women's fashion footwear from the last one hundred years. Anyway, it was all very exciting - check it out - this is a photo of the new fashion exhibit:


Personally I don't find it to be terribly interesting, although it does feature some very pretty shoes. I think the exhibit is the type of thing that people are expecting or wanting to see when they come to the museum, so I'm sure it will be very popular. For the most part, the museum tells the history of civilization through footwear - so there are a lot of shoes from all over the world and throughout history in addition to footwear that is used for different occupations. I think that type of stuff is more interesting than designer heels, but what do I know? The celebrity shoes were a little disappointing - no celebrity that I'm particularly hot and bothered about [except for Marilyn, but she's part of the permanent collection]. Anyway, here is a photo of my favourite heels from the Fashion Afoot exhibit - I feel they are very Audrey Horne-esque. They are from the 1920s:


Another thing I love about The BSM is that they spare no expense - they invest a lot of money back into the museum and they really like to do things up. Last night they had a series of performances from a contemporary dance/acrobat type of person. It was fascinating. Long pieces of cloth hung from the ceiling and the performer did like...acrobatic tricks and poses - sometimes falling from the top to the bottom. It was all so effortless, but obviously completely awesome. I wish I could do something like this - but alas, I am weak and inflexible. This blurry photo does nothing to illustrate the hotness of the performance: