Model No. 334

This object comes from a group of over seventy-five shoe prototypes designed in Paris in 1939 by Steven Arpad. Aside from the lines of leather accessories and jewelry he produced under his own name in the 1940s, Arpad seems to have worked mostly anonymously. The prototypes are accompanied by an extensive archive of original sketches which has made it possible to identify uncredited shoe designs for Balenciaga and Delman as Arpad's work. Containing some of the most creative, unique, and unusual examples of footwear design in the collection, the museum's holdings appear to be the only documented body of the work of this extraordinary designer.
Arpad experimented repeatedly with the stacking of graduated pieces on the vamp, employing various shapes and arrangements. The loose corners of the layered applications on this button shoe create added interest and texture, and draw the eye up the foot. The blue and red coloration accentuates the nautical theme introduced by the piece's fishtail shape.