Jeanne Beker on Sonja Bata's legacy as a shoe and style icon
Veteran fashion journalist Jeanne Beker discusses the late Sonja Bata's legacy as a Canadian cultural icon.
CBC Radio ·
(Michal Sváček)
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Collector and philanthropist Sonja Bata had a fascination with design and history that led to a collection of thousands of artifacts in the Bata Shoe Museum. Fashion journalist Jeanne Beker joins Tom Power to talk about the late style icon's legacy and why she personified grace, dignity and charm.
Sonja Bata receiving the Meritorious Service Medal -Military Division- with Michaelle Jean, April 5, 2006. (Bata Shoe Museum)
Sonja Bata with Mother Teresa Calcutta India, February 1984. (Bata Shoe Museum)
Sonja and Thomas Bata Engagement photo, Spring or Summer 1945. (Bata Shoe Museum)
Manchu, China, c. 1880: Manchu women were forbidden to have bound feet and instead wore high platform shoes that stilted their gait and allowed them to emulate the desirable shuffling ‘lotus walk’ of women with bound feet. Although the Manchu and the Han were distinct ethnic groups within China, they shared a similar artistic vocabulary, a fact attested to by the use of similar motifs such as the butterflies that decorate the uppers of these shoes. (Bata Shoe Museum)
