If the shoe fits: the history of the high heel

A new exhibition exploring our obsession with shoes opens today at the V&A. Suzanne Harrington ditches the heels and takes a look.

THE exhibition poster says it all — a haughty, glamorous woman in haughty, glamorous shoes being helped up concrete steps by two faceless men in suits.

The model, a long-legged and platinum blonde, Nadja Auerman, is on crutches — her shoes are crippling her, but she doesn’t care, because they are fabulous. Or she is being abducted, and can’t run away, again because of the shoes.