Any woman who has tried to convince her better half that shoes are more than just function — they are art — will find vindication in the Vancouver Museum’s newest exhibit.
Fox, Fluevog & Friends: The Story Behind The Shoes opens on Friday and offers a retrospective look at the iconic footwear of Vancouver’s most famous cobblers — John Fluevog, Ken Rice and Peter Fox.
“I’m thrilled and humbled that my work is being fêted in Vancouver, the city where it all began,” said Fluevog, who started designing shoes at his Gastown studio — which is still near The Old Spaghetti Factory — in 1970.
The exhibit incorporates roughly 150 shoes as well as photographs, news clippings and sketchings.
“I love the bizarre and pedestrian collisions of history that brought (these three men) together in Gastown in the 1970s,” said curator Joan Seidl.
“Fox and Fluevog took a chance on establishing in Gastown during the first Gastown renaissance, when its potential as a creative hub for entrepreneurs was first realized.”
Fluevog’s distinctly edgy and often eccentric brand has been worn by Madonna, who donned pink platforms in her 1991 video Truth Or Dare, as well as Iggy Pop, Jack White and Scarlett Johansson.
Peter Fox shoes have been used in Alice In Wonderland, Harry Potter and Titanic, where Kate Winslet wore Fox’s Anya boot.
