Shoes

Mary Poppins

ca. 1973 · leather · Costume Institute

The historicizing "hippie" or bohemian look of the later 1960s spurred the revival of the platform sole in 1967, which had last enjoyed wide success in the 1940s. Designers were soon making frankly modern versions of the platform shoe, with exaggerated bulgy toes, flaring heels, and curvaceous soles. Colorful piecing and patchwork was frequently used to add a fresh, graphic quality to the upper. In this example of the extreme platform style, the upper and fore sole is elegantly resolved as a columnar form in a symmetrical color scheme.

Artist

Mary Poppins

Date

ca. 1973

Medium

leather

Culture

Italian

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Sheri Sandler, 1993