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Tuesday, 22 December 2009

ShoeWoo, New York


While flaneur-ing the city this week around Lexington Avenue I found this incredible store ShoeWoo at 750 Lexington Avenue on 59th. I have never seen this store before and the incredible interior space and window scheme certainly warranted some attention. I know nothing about this brand at all and after some cursory research I am still none the wiser apart from a couple of Internet pages that seem to read in 'Engrish' - you know the kind of thing, Instructions for the tourist, Yes.! We Sale..!, No Photing, and so on. So I am unable to share much more with you other than the images here. Anyway, what is quite incredible about the space here is the use of hundreds of shoes that have been used to cover the pillar in the centre of the store. I really do like this idea and yet find it simultaneously unnerving. I feel my European sensibility kicking in and having viewed the hundreds of Holocaust visuals over the years this always springs to mind when I seen hundreds of pairs shoes or spectacles used within schemes. I know this is perhaps just me and this concept is undoubtedly completely removed from any reference to the Holocaust. Alternatively, they also do look a little like bones that have been used to decorate the crypts and bone chapels of the Capuchin monks in Italy. Therefore, while the image here is actually a very cheery one is it seems to me to be also quite chilling. Anyway, they sell shoes and visually this space works incredibly well, I just wish I could find out a little more about this brand.