Walk This Way: Footwear from the Stuart Weitzman Collection of Historic Shoes 

June 26 – October 10, 2021

Organized and first presented by the New-York Historical Society, Walk This Way: Footwear from the Stuart Weitzman Collection of Historic Shoes highlights more than 100 pairs of shoes from iconic designer Stuart Weitzman’s extensive private collection, assembled over three decades with his wife Jane Gershon Weitzman.

About the Exhibition

“Nimble and often glittering, the show encapsulates the evolution of women’s shoes over the past 180 years—and also speaks to the history of shoemaking in America. It is a delight at every turn…” – Wall Street Journal

Explore how shoes have transcended their utilitarian purpose to become representations of culture—coveted as objects of desire, designed with artistic consideration, and expressing complicated meanings of femininity, power, and aspiration for women and men alike.

Walk This Way considers the story of the shoe from the perspectives of collection, consumption, presentation, design, and production. It reveals larger trends in American economic history, from industrialization to the rise of consumer culture, with a focus on women’s contributions as producers, consumers, designers, and entrepreneurs.

As Stuart Weitzman himself expresses in the exhibition catalogue, shoes “tell an almost infinite number of stories. Stories of conformity and independence, culture and class, politics and performance.”

Sponsored by

Lead Sponsor

Partnering Sponsor

Supported in part by the Wisconsin Department of Tourism.

Exhibition support provided by the Parsley-Kreilein BRAVO Fund as part of the National Philanthropic Trust.

Educational programs sponsored by Rhyme.