Exhausted after an intense but thoroughly satisfying weekend at Drexel’s Fashion in Fiction conference, I’m all about pretty pictures today. In one of my recent perusals of the interwebs, I discovered the Virtual Shoe Museum. Though it’s not my favorite browser interface, I enjoyed how many (if not most) of the shoes in this catalog are distinctly unwearable– either by bulkiness, lack of foot protection, impractical materials, or structure so severe that walking would be impossible, indicating that the line between fashion and sculpture is a nebulous one.

I’m tempted to delve into the intersection of surrealism and fashion, Max Ernst’s mechanistic fantasies of mannequins, etc… but I’ll save that for another day. Instead, I’ll simply whet your appetite with some of my favorite surreal shoes from the VSM’s online collection, with the reminder that humor is intrinsic to Surrealism:

Svenja Ritter pie shoes:

Svenja Ritter pie shoes

Invisible Shoe, Andreia Chaves
Invisible Shoe, Andreia Chaves, 2011
Chewing gum shoe, Kobi Levi
Chewing gum shoe, Kobi Levi

Toeshoe gold, Bart Persoons

Toeshoe gold, Bart Persoons
Ice cream shoe, Rhonda Voo
Ice cream shoe, Rhonda Voo
Banana slipper shoe, Kobi Levi
High Tide Heels pro, Paul Schietekat
High Tide Heels pro shoe, Paul Schietekat, 2008
Stilts shoes, Eelko Moorer, 2003
Nailed up. 2004, Alexander Fielden
Nailed up, Alexander Fielden, 2004

I encourage you to visit the furniture shoe section, as well. Enjoy!