Manolo Blahnik at The Wallace Collection
The Wallace Collection really is a gem in the heart of the capital. Many don't even know it exists. Ever wondered out of Selfridges, across Wigmore Street and into Manchester Square and wondered what that big, grand house is staring back at you?? Yep, that's the Wallace Collection!
To quote the website:
The Wallace Collection is a national museum which displays the wonderful works of art collected in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the first four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, the son of the 4th Marquess. It was bequeathed to the British nation by Sir Richard's widow, Lady Wallace, in 1897.
I've been many times, not only to marvel at the resident and truly quite remarkable china collection (check out the colours below!), but also the pop up exhibitions. Like this current one, An Enquiring Mind: Manonlo Blahnik at the Wallace Collection.
When we first arrived, I just wasn't sure if the shoes just looked a little odd and out of place, but the more you venture round the house, the more you realise it's actually quite genius.
They start to feel like they just belong there, like the other relics in the collection. And some of these shoes definitely look like relics. The look OLD! Like, Victorian old. I actually had to think about how old Manolo was. Was he 120? Had he lived through the Victorian age? Was he a Victorian?
He isn't. He's 76-years-old. But some of the shoes look straight off Queen Victoria's feet.
Shoes galore!
It's fashion art meets art art, all set in the grandeur of this old house. As you navigate round the Wallace Collection, the shoes actually draw you in to the pieces of art on the walls and the ornate pieces of furniture and crockery. You just have to go and believe me on how good it is!
