They may not be the most spectacular exhibit in a collection of footwear designed for princesses and supermodels as well as athletes, labourers and mere fashionistas, but the ballet pumps by Bloch, only Jewish shoemaker to be showcased at an exhibition showing how we relate to what we choose to put on our feet, are the most revolutionary.
For the family firm founded by Lithuanian refugee Jacob Bloch and now run by his grandson David Wilkenfeld, was the first to end discrimination against professional ballet dancers by creating flesh-toned shoes to match their skin colour.
“We wanted to illustrate the fact that so many dancers felt excluded from ballet for decades, and when we went to look for a flesh-toned pair suitable for a dancer of colour we had to buy them from Bloch,” explains Clare Isbester, co-curator of the Shoes:Inside Out exhibition at the Arc gallery in Winchester.
The legendary firm, which was born in Sydney before expanding to London, home of its flagship store, as well as Paris, Warsaw and the USA, recognised in 2016 that it had a special contribution to make after reading the complaints of Eric Underwood, a black soloist for the Royal Ballet. He pledged to “love forever” whichever ballet shoe specialist would relieve him of the need to slather his pink ballet shoes - amazingly the only colour in which this professional footwear was made until recently - with pancake make-up to match the colour of his skin.
“Applying make-up to my shoes is time-consuming and messy - this is such a breakthrough,” Underwood told America’s Smithsonian Museum magazine in a report on his collaboration with Bloch, who made their “Eric Tan” for him alone to dance in while rolling out a full range of flesh tones. The firm has since worked with dancers of colour all over the world to make tonal pointe shoes for sale to all, rather than bespoke pairs only.
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Interestingly it’s the concept of creating bespoke shoes for individual dancers which first distinguished Jacob Bloch from his competitors when he started making ballet pumps one pair at a time for each customer to order in his candlelit Sydney workshop in 1932. “The philosophy of listening to dancers has been the vital essence of the company’s mission for 90 years,” reads the website of this reclusive firm, which despite official partnerships with the Royal Ballet and other leading international dance companies declines interviews and warns its London store does not take phone calls.
The fact no other Jewish shoe manufacturers are featured in the show is down more to the fact that Jews are now better known for retailing shoes than designing and nailing them, according to Lucie Whitmore, curator of the Fashion City exhibition at Museum of London Docklands currently showing how Jewish Londoners shaped global style.
“There was a strong Jewish shoemaking tradition in the late 19th century, when a survey of 9000 arrivals at the Jews’ Temporary Shelter showed 11 per cent were boot and shoemakers, and that is reflected in the 1901 census, by which time it had grown to 12-13 per cent,” she explains.
A pair of Manolo Blahniks at the show. Photo: Getty Images[Missing Credit]
“However, a riveting machine invented in the late 19th century made the prices commanded for handmade shoes no longer justifiable, and the second generation of immigrants were less likely to follow their parents into the trade.” In spite of that, she says, East End artisan cobblers continued to supply David Rose, whose D. Rose shoe shop in Middlesex Street is showcased in Fashion City: “It opened in 1917 and closed in 1976. Alongside established brands it sold unlabelled shoes made in local factories, and it’s safe to say a lot of the makers in the earlier days would have been Jewish. Shoemaking was one of the three main trades for Jewish Eastenders in the early 20th century alongside tailoring and furniture-making."
The most famous of all Jewish shoe retailers does feature in the Winchester show - Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker, whose eponymous SJP chain of shoe stores has a Las Vegas and Dubai presence as well as the flagship New York City store where she has been spotted serving customers herself. To accompany an information panel about her SATC character Carrie Bradshaw raving about a pair of Manolo Blahniks, who famously said ‘shoes are the quickest say for women to achieve instant metamorphosis. Isbester confesses she had to beg or borrow a pair, given their sky-high price: “I was lucky a friend was willing to lend her own!”
Although the Czech firm Bata, whose gold sandals are also included in the exhibition, is not of Jewish origin, they did save the families of 300 Jewish employees they re-posted to safer countries including the USA, Canada, Mexico and China just before Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia. The company was disgraced when it became embroiled with slave labour in concentration camps, but rescued Jews spoke up in defence of Jan Antonin Bata, who took over the company from his late brother in 1932, when a case was opened in 2007 to overthrow his conviction as a traitor and Nazi collaborator. His name was cleared following their testimony.
*SHOES:Inside Out is at The Arc, Winchester until February 14
