The shoes of our lost icons are still full of life

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To paint in his studio in Northampton, Mass., Eric Carle – who has illustrated and written dozens of picture books, the most famous “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” – dressed in a white coat in the style of ‘a doctor’s lab coat and a dedicated pair of black lace-up Italian dress shoes that he wouldn’t wear anywhere else. “It was her transition from her usual personal life to the creative world,†says Motoko Inoue, the former creative director of Carle’s studio, who recalls her persistent desire to bring more color and saturation to the world. But despite all the tense routine, Carle “embraced the mess” in his life as a painter, often using a broom as a giant paintbrush to make huge murals on his studio floor and splashing bright hues in the process. says Rachel Hass of the Eric Carle Picture Book Art Museum. “The shoes themselves were so sophisticated and stylish, so splashed with paint, they captured that combination of the free child and the sophisticated man – the essence of Eric.”


For writer Larry McMurtry, whose works include the screenplay adapted from “Brokeback Mountain” and the novel “Lonesome Dove,” every morning was a ritual: he would take a bath and put on a blue Oxford shirt with Levi’s and the same pair of stiff cowboy boots, then sit down in front of your typewriter and not get up until you’ve written five pages. “He grew up in Texas and was a reluctant cowboy until he was 22,†says Diana Ossana, his longtime writing partner, who lived with him for 30 years. “After having open heart surgery in 1991, we would walk around every afternoon and he was wearing those boots, which was driving me crazy. I said, ‘You need tennis shoes!’ McMurtry just laughed. Every 10 years or so, when the boots got worn out, he and Ossana would go to the same store to buy them back. “When you wear something that has a heel like that,†she said, “your Achilles tendons can shorten, and so in his later years he would stretch out, and I would take his heel and stretch it out. him . ”

There is no final count, but based on her family members’ approximation, Sarah Dash would have owned 400 or 500 pairs of shoes. Dash – a formidable funk and gospel singer, a full member of the vocal trio Labelle and creative collaborator of Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones – “loved Christian Louboutin, Chanel, Versace,” recalls Sarah Ann Freeman, niece and stylist. by Dash. “She liked stilettos because she thought they made her look tall. She loved reds and oranges, loved the different textures, textiles and fabrics of clothes. Freeman says Dash’s shoe arsenal – along with his rival collection of luxury sunglasses and the line of Victorian antiques that dot his home – reflected his personality, which was “laid back, fun and funky.” Dash wore these fur-trimmed heels for his 2007 performances with the San Francisco Circus Teatro ZinZanni, paired with a huge feathered headdress and wings.


Before the heavy curtain was raised to begin one of Siegfried & Roy’s magic shows at the Mirage in Las Vegas, half of the duo, Siegfried Fischbacher, snuck into the audience to mingle with unsuspecting fans – wearing cape and mask, quietly sensing the mood of the crowd, the only clue to her identity is an unusual pair of silver boots studded to her feet, according to her publicist Dave Kirvin. These boots were one of many custom-designed items in the show’s $ 3.5 million wardrobe, and they were worn in one of 30 or 40 lightning-quick costume changes that the duo would perform during each performance. They were also a plot in the series, which avoided dialogue and relied on physical illusions, often involving tigers, white lions, and other exotic animals.

Master saxophonist Alfred (Pee Wee) Ellis, whose mastery of genres has earned him both an extensive catalog of recordings and a career directing music to James Brown and Van Morrison, was meticulous about his appearance. on the scene. These loafers were purchased by his wife and manager, Charlotte Crofton-Sleigh, specifically to match a lush velvet jacket Ellis had made for her solo Christmas tour. “Pee Wee hated shopping,†she recalls. “He was a simple man at heart – his everyday clothes were casual tracksuits, baseball caps – but when it came to performing he was very particular and much more formal. Everything had to be perfect. from shoes and shirts to ties and collar patches. He considered it a mark of respect for the audience to be at their best. His appearance was as much a part of the show as the way he performed. . Once the costume was on, it was a game. “


No contemporary designer signature rivals that of Virgil Abloh – in terms of vibrancy, abundance or scale. Abloh, who studied engineering and architecture, confessed at a Harvard lecture in 2017 that he himself was “not a fan of sneakers”: “I wear the same shoes for a very long time. , then I move on to another. But from his informal sartorial experience (he learned the basics of fashion from his mother, a seamstress), he created a tantalizing mix of luxury and streetwear and spawned cult collaborations between Off-White, his brand and Nike. Now “there are people around this room who look like me,†Abloh, the child of Ghanaian immigrants, told The Times in 2018. “You’ve never seen this in fashion before. People have changed, so fashion had to change. This neon green pair was among the last shoes ever designed by Abloh, who was the artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear. He died before he could see them make his Louis Vuitton runway debut in Miami in November.

The thoroughness of Jacques d’Amboise – who held 24 bespoke roles as principal dancer of the New York City Ballet from 1953 to 1984 and also founded the National Dance Institute in New York – is evident in his shoes. He “always tucked his feet into ballet slippers that were too small in size – he felt that this made his lines more elegant,” explains Christopher d’Amboise, Jacques’ son and himself a dancer, who adds that Jacques has played with “boyish exuberance”. and a “carefree and carefree style”. But “over the years his toes have become so knotty that they required multiple surgeries and made him unable to easily walk in normal shoes – these shoes present the height of artistic excellence as well as sacrifice. resulting physics. ” Longtime friend Jamee Schleifer bought the pair at auction to keep Jacques’ vibrant spirit in his home. “The hugging him was like hugging a rock, the man was so fit,†she says. “He filled these shoes to the brim.”


Flaming-haired burlesque legend Tempest Storm – a poverty-stricken celebrity who stripped Carnegie Hall and was said to have been lover of John F. Kennedy and Elvis – is said to have rushed to a stage wearing a dress, gloves and pearls. and a hat and only leave it in a thong, pies and one of her many beloved pairs of high heels. The so-called “vintage stripper” once rioted at a college simply by removing her mink coat, and continued to perform until the early 1980s, until she falls and injures his hip during a performance. “She had never gone out in public without heels, even at 90. She was flamboyant, very independent and incredibly educated, even though she had only been in seventh grade and came from the cotton fields of Georgia,†explains Harvey Robbins, who saw Storm dance at the age of 16 and, 50 years later, proudly became his manager. “She didn’t take pictures with stars,” he said, “because she felt she was as tall as any of them.”


The Hall of Fame and revered right fielder Hank Aaron clocked a nearly unmatched total of 755 homers. On the court, Aaron led the Atlanta Braves (formerly the Milwaukee Braves) and Milwaukee Brewers to dizzying victories. Other than that, he was a black man from Alabama who grew up hiding from the steps of the Ku Klux Klan, was transported to ‘colorful’ locker rooms when he first entered professional baseball. and issued death threats which increased in number as he got closer. to break Babe Ruth’s record. “He was coming for a game, getting dressed, going home,” said Joe Torre, a former teammate, after Aaron died. Aaron told The Times in 1994 that he had to leave the stadiums through the back door and be escorted by the police: “All of these things put a bad taste in my mouth, and it’s not going to go away. They etched a piece of my heart. He wore this pair of crampons during the later years of his MLB career.


Hester Ford, considered the oldest in the United States at the time of her death, was a celebrity in Charlotte, North Carolina, to the point that bus drivers made unscheduled stops at her house to pick her up for shopping. . Ford, still energetic and fearless, regularly drove miles and miles every day well past its 100th birthday. She lived to be 115 or 116 (there is conflicting census data for Ford’s year of birth) and attended church and the homes of myriad relatives. in the neighborhood. “I called her the queen of life hacks,†says Tanisha Patterson-Powe, one of Ford’s more than 120 great-grandchildren. “If something was broken, she had the creativity to fix it.” Patterson-Powe remembers Ford’s pragmatic spirit and deep resilience – she lived through the Jim Crow era of discrimination, two pandemics and 21 presidential elections – and says her expansive family tree brought her the most joy . “She was baking a cake for each of us,†says Mary Hill, one of her granddaughters.


Halyna Hutchins, who worked as an investigative journalist in Eastern Europe before moving to Los Angeles to pursue film production, avidly collected the boots. She was killed by a propeller pistol discharged by Alec Baldwin on the set of “Rust” in October. After her death, her husband, Matt Hutchins, discovered a pair of intricate Tiffany blue cowboy boots in his hotel room, still delicately wrapped in tissue paper. “Obviously, she had purchased the boots with the intention of bringing them back to Los Angeles and left them packed to avoid the scuffs and scuffs that are inevitable when working on site in the desert,†he said. in a note to The Times. “Halyna loved to wear leather accessories and colorful scarves and hats, and I have no doubt that these boots, in her mind, would have already been part or were the basis of a number of outfits she would wear to her. back home.”

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