So I have finally made it to the Bally shoe exhitibion at the Museum für Gestaltung hier in Zurich (museum for decorative arts): https://museum-gestaltung.ch/en/ausstellung/bally-das-geschaeft-mit-dem-schuh/ It's not huge, but it was nicely done, divided into chapters like company history, sales, marketing, manufacturing, sports, fashion - and of course with lots of fantastic shoes on show! The only thing I couldn't understand was though, why the introduction to each part of the exhibition was done in silver (reflective) letters on blue or red background - it was simply unreadable! Here are just a few photos from my favourite eye candy. What I've never heard of before, but they analysed the material of those 1930s gold leather evening shoes and found that what was coating the leather did contain actual gold - no wonder they look as gorgeous as they do! Original from 1939 and recreation from 2017! celluloid heels, 1901-1910 The dress was made by an atelier in Zurich, shoes and evening bag with the same iridecent, blue-green sequins... all from the Swiss Textile Collection, I have seen these items already in another exibition. But such a pretty ensemble! The shoes at the top were made for a Cardin runway show. Shoes made for export, exibited at the "Landi" - Landesausstellung (great exhibition) 1939.
Bally loaned many of their shoes to the Bata Shoe Museum years ago, and some of the other halves of these pairs are still there, like the padded gold leather late 30s evening sandal (last pic). There are a lot of shoes here I don't recognize - love the wartime wooden clogs!
Thank you... just took them with my phone... Jonathan - wow, makes me wonder if they realise still that they the "other halves" are in Toronto, or was that supposedly a long-term loan? It seems kind of sad to see pairs of shoes broken up. I would say decade-wise, the 30s and 40s were probably best covered. There were more examples of those war-time woden clogs, they had quite a lot of those. The middle one was made with colored straw. They had old photos from the exhibit at the Landesausstellung, showing that all shoes in the last two of my photos - and more. Most people who visited that show would never have been able to afford those kinds of shoes.
The loan was a long-term loan, so I think they know... The great thing about Bally shoes is that until the 1940s, the code was known and can be read to determine the date of manufacture. For some reason the coding changed during the war, or shortly afterwards, and it no longer included the date in the code.
wow, Karin, it looks like a fabulous exhibit!! loving ALL their shoes and boots, and their ads are great! what a treat!! thanks for sharing!
