Page 353 - The Secret Museum

1815. The Battle of Waterloo took place in June of that year.

Perhaps the most unexpected shoes in the collection are the ones that were made

for the Chilean miners who were trapped in 2010. I didn’t know this, but a limited
edition of shoes was quickly made for them, shoes that could be rolled up and sent
down into the mine. Mrs Bata collected a pair to go in her vast museum storage
facility.

She explained how her collection all fits together. ‘On the surface, shoes are an
indication of personal taste and style, but a closer examination yields a different
picture. If you look at the development of shoes chronologically, you notice the
subtlest shifts in a society’s attitudes and values. Footwear illustrates entire ways of

life, indicating the climate, religions, professions, attitudes to gender and social
status of different cultures through the ages.’ She concludes: ‘Whether they are
objects of beauty or instruments of torture, shoes are surely signs of the times.’