Shoe prototype

This object comes from a group of over seventy-five shoe prototypes designed in Paris in 1939 by Steven Arpad. Aside from the lines of leather accessories and jewelry he produced under his own name in the 1940s, Arpad seems to have worked mostly anonymously. The prototypes are accompanied by an extensive archive of original sketches which has made it possible to identify uncredited shoe designs for Balenciaga and Delman as Arpad's work. Containing some of the most creative, unique, and unusual examples of footwear design in the collection, the museum's holdings appear to be the only documented body of the work of this extraordinary designer. In this design for the theater, Arpad creates a sculptural and somewhat surreal fantasy where the graduated prow-like flanges seem to swallow up the front of the foot. Although the design seems somewhat off-putting and unbalanced, Arpad does not fail to include elegantly refined details and design resolutions, notably in the treatment of the juncture of heel and vamp.