The Bata shoe museum

Because I am a volunteer at the Textile Museum, I get reciprocal privileges at a few other institutions around town, and I mean to take advantage of that! Today a friend and I went to another small niche museum, all about shoes.

They have a great floor!

A lot of the exhibits are kept in rather low-light situations. Understandable, given that they might be made of silk or straw and be several centuries old! But not great for amateur photography.

This dress was in an exhibit called Fashion Victims, all about the very real perils of clothing. The lovely green colour was made with arsenic, and both makers and wearers could fall horribly ill. The wallpaper contains arsenic as well!

You could also die a horrible death if you were wearing a steel crinoline and your big dress caught fire.

There are lots of other shoes there, historic, culturally interesting, men's high heels, ballet slippers, and on and on. Very nice, especially if one can get in for free!