If the shoe fits

April 26, 2005 7:50 AM

Feet Me. Celebrity shoes live onstage: from assertive Beastie Boys and PJ Harvey to sporty Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Neil Young, from old skool Claudio Abbado and Nick Cave to minimalist, shoeless David Bowie.
posted by matteo (17 comments total)

Interesting sights. Have there been studies showing one's personality from their shoes? While in public, a shoe is the main article of clothing that will shape my comfort mood.
I can be underdressed at an event yet wearing the right shoes, feel like a million bucks.
posted by thomcatspike at 8:04 AM on April 26, 2005

I assumed this was going to feel like a joke, but it is oddly compelling.
posted by gwint at 8:12 AM on April 26, 2005

This is great.

I can't get over how wispy P.J. Harvey is. Pic #1 of Nick Cave is terrifying and Bjork looks like she's wearing high-heeled casts.

Fun find, matteo!
posted by Sully6 at 8:17 AM on April 26, 2005

My girlfriend back in college was a rabid Prince fan, and actually bought a pair of his boots at a fund-raising auction. What blew me away (other than the fact that the diminuitive Prince has damn diminuitive feet) was the height of his heels! Having been dragged to one of his concerts and seen the Purple One perform, I was duly impressed that he was able to expertly dance all over the stage on those 4" stilts. I wore heels once for halloween; I don't know how you ladies stand them.
posted by johnnyace at 8:55 AM on April 26, 2005

thomcatspike, I don't know of any studies, but I do know that shoes are near one of the first things I observe about a person after the initial "hi, how are you" phase of meeting someone.
The only real correlation I have noticed is I tend to like people who usually wear comfortable shoes/boots. If they are interesting and comfortable all the better.
posted by edgeways at 9:16 AM on April 26, 2005

This is really interesting.

I've always thought that you can tell a lot about a person by their shoes and socks.

Eg, you'd think certain things about me if I told you I was wearing red Earth shoes and black angora socks with red and grey polka dots...
posted by Specklet at 9:52 AM on April 26, 2005

I hope this turned out well for Nick, with the wire wrapped around his foot. Maybe Elvin Jones was riding the foot pedal a little too hard. Cool post, matteo.

(There's a joke about telling shy archivists from outgoing archivists because outgoing archivists look at the other person's shoes when talking.

Yes, an archivist told me.)
posted by philfromhavelock at 9:55 AM on April 26, 2005

wow this is great! thanks matteo.
posted by Smell at 9:59 AM on April 26, 2005

Nice post.
posted by AlexReynolds at 11:01 AM on April 26, 2005

The Bata shoe museum in Toronto is pretty cool if you're into (celebrity) shoes.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 11:50 AM on April 26, 2005

Is Blondie JUMPING in those heels?
posted by puddinghead at 1:29 PM on April 26, 2005

Bon Jovi and Celine Dion -- same person? ;) Seriously though--good post, thanks!!
posted by rio at 2:17 PM on April 26, 2005

I dig shoes.
posted by buzzman at 3:20 PM on April 26, 2005

What is Lou Reed wearing there?

A lot of these photos seem very indicative of the performer's general personality - what would also be interesting would be to see how these shots might reflect, over time, the nature of an artist's career.

Myself, I'd want to be as comfortable on stage as possible...it seems like it'd be stressful enough without the added discomfort of weird shoes.
posted by invitapriore at 5:38 PM on April 26, 2005

Is Blondie JUMPING in those heels?

no.
posted by mrgrimm at 5:49 PM on April 26, 2005

I really enjoyed this post. I was trying to put together a web gallery last night of my music photos over the last 30 years, and I have more than a few just like this. (Most involving a guitarist's foot, and lots of pedals.)

He's been hanging around the scene for a long time (the earliest photo I saw was from 1986) and has seen a lot of pretty nice concerts, from Cecil Taylor and Archie Sheep to The Who to Neil Young to Kraftwerk to the Bowies Lester and David. Nice variety of styles both feet and otherwise.
posted by LeLiLo at 9:17 PM on April 26, 2005

There's also popstar feets. I interviewed the blogger behind that.
posted by jasonspaceman at 6:41 AM on April 27, 2005