Photography by Ryan Emberley
Heels may always take top fashion honours, but sneakers are most definitely the shoes of the last century. On Thursday night, they were officially inducted into shoe history with the opening of Bata Shoe Museum’s Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture, the first exhibit of its kind in North America. Beginning with ultimate function’s first pair made in 1873 (they were called plimsoles at the time), the exhibit features everything from the iconic— Nike Dunk Supremes—to the hyper fashionable—Pierre Hardy’s Poworama sneakers.
Matching the exhibit’s out of the box theme, the museum had Toronto-born and internationally lauded industrial designer Karim Rashid, who is known to collect a sneaker or two himself, design the exhibit. In signature monochrome (this time it was head-to-toe white) Rashid kicked off the exhibit alongside the museum’s iconic founder, Sonja Bata and FASHION’s editor in chief, Bernadette Morra. After taking in a break dancing performance from Unity Charity, the crowd, which included persistent girl about town, Jen Kirsch and recent Come Date With Me Canada bachelorette Gail McInnes, hiked up three flights of stairs to take in the exhibit. To those who hiked in heels, we salute you.
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