get on your dancing shoes

"shoes must have very high heels and platforms to put women's beauty on a pedestal" - vivienne westwood.

 last night, i went to the opening of an exhibition of vivienne westwood's shoes at the bowes museum with my mum & my sister. my grandad is a member of the museum group so he got an invite, but decided it wasn't his cup of tea so gave it to us instead!

bowes museum leaflet & back of the invite.

it was a lovely evening, the bowes museum is a wonderful old building, but the new fashion & textiles gallery is surprisingly modern. the exhibition was amazing, the shoes there were incredible, although sadly i don't have any photographic evidence as cameras weren't allowed so you'll just have to take my word for it! vivienne westwood has always been one of my favourite designers (and i'm not really that into fashion so i don't have many), simply because everything she does is created with incredible skill.

some of my favourites from the collection were her toile print boot with dutch pottery patterns, the famous super elevated gillie which naomi cambell was wearing when she fell over on the catwalk & the biba shoe. also, the penis shoe made me laugh. i love that she has a sense of humour, & is always pushing boundaries within fashion. it was quite incredible as we were looking around the gallery because, as my sister said, so many elements in her work have been filtered down in the industry & you can still see their influences today, like the pirate shoe for example.

a postcard of the super elevated gillie & the front of the invitation.

the exhibition is there until july, so if you're in the area it's definitely worth a look! i find it quite funny that this exhibition has been to moscow & beirut, and will go to japan, new york & china, but i went to see it in barnard castle in county durham, bit of an obscure location.

here's what i wore, i didn't really have time to take proper outfit pictures because it's like an hour's drive & i was running late! the dress is from new look, & has a kind of cape thing going on, but i forgot to take a picture without my cardigan so you can't see it here, woops. the cardigan is from tesco & the tights are vintage. a random woman came up to me in the gallery & told me that she liked my outfit, i was pretty flattered seeing as most people there were very stylish, and loads of them appeared to be dressed head to toe in vivienne westwood!

and here is the lady herself on my wardrobe collage!