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. Shoe designers introduced various forms of ribbon and strap uppers in the late 1930s; Arpad here presents his interpretation of that trend using a wide ribbon in a lively pattern. Interestingly, the ribbon is used not as a strap or tie in itself and not to bare the foot, but as an enclosing material which provides an integrated threading system for the laces.