Shanghai shoe show steps up with footwear from the V&A

There’s still time to catch the show Shoes: Pleasure and Pain, at the Shanghai mall HKRI Taikoo Hui (until 5 November), a footgear extravaganza organised in partnership with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The organiser Helen Persson, who heads the Centre for Dress and Fashion at the Stiftelsen Nordiska museum, reflects on the development of societies through the fancy footwear. The exhibition's 140 pairs of shoes—divided into sections about Transformation, Status, Seduction, Creation and Obsession—draw from the collections of the V&A and Persson. The Hong Kong actress Karen Mok has also loaned 14 pairs including a pair of peep-toed pumps custom designed for her by Salvatore Ferragamo. “The shoes taken from my collection on loan to the exhibition represent important milestones in my personal life and career,” Mok says. Other designers featured include Jimmy Choo, Vivienne Westwood, and Zaha Hadid. Shoes: Pleasure and Pain is backed by the mall's developers, HKR International and Swire Properties, and comes ahead of the planned December opening of the V&A Gallery at Design Society in Shenzhen.