Wednesday, June 19, 2013

I'm One of Those Costume Nerds ...

... for whom this is not a new thought.  Ahh, but I love American Duchess, and it was an interesting idea to revive the original styles.  It's not surprising, though, that enthusiasm is running distinctly against the idea.

Also fun was finding this in the comments.  Yet another blog of following-ness for me, I'm afraid.  Yay!

Love them or hate them, chopines make an interesting study in design, as well, in a way, as about our assumptions about design and clothing.  These shoes seem "shocking" to us not merely because they appear to defy (our centers of) gravity, but also because - by the mainstream aesthetic which has guided shoe design since before we kept our kicks on display when skirts became shorter in the early 20th century - they're kind of ugly.  Read the responses at American Duchess' post suggesting a revival, and the antipathy is almost emotional.  The silhouette of the chopine not only goes against our assumptions about footwear, but the modern "edgy" versions remind us of nothing so much as would-be shock professionals like Lady Gaga and, frankly, I would posit they also resemble fetish shoes (the link's just to results for an image search, and what appears at the top is nothing outre' - but click on your own reconnaissance), which is a whole area that disturbs ... well, I suspect, a lot fewer people than would like to say so ...

So it looks unlikely, given the lack of enthusiasm, that the Duchess will be going into repro chopine production.  But for consolation, there's always the modern market for the glittery/Gaga-y options.

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