Red Satin Cantilevered Shoes Worn by Celia Cruz
Object Details
- Summary
- In her autobiography, Celia Cruz (1925–2003) traces her lifelong fascination with fashion to a childhood memory: Family friends gifted her white patent-leather shoes to thank her for singing to them. For the "Queen of Salsa," clothing, especially shoes, had long been as much a way to express herself as music. Born in Havana into a family of fourteen children, Cruz understood that the stage demanded more than a beautiful voice. As she reflected in 1997: "I have fulfilled my father's wish to be a teacher as, through my music, I teach generations of people about my culture and the happiness that is found in just living life." Fashion was the visual extension of that teaching. Cruz owned thousands of pairs of shoes from a select group of master craftsmen, including Mexican designer Miguel Nieto and Willebaldo "Willie" Rivera, the Mexican-born Hollywood shoemaker who had been creating footwear for stars like Fred Astaire and film productions since opening his shop in 1956. Her red satin platform shoes featured cantilever heels, a mid-century innovation patented in 1947 in which the heel is shifted forward beneath the arch of the foot rather than under the heel bone, creating the illusion of a floating, heelless shoe. Reinforced with steel and standing at 6¼ inches, this dramatic style was popular in the late 1950s and allowed Cruz to dance dynamically while performing clave-based rhythms, a perfect synthesis of engineering and artistry.
- Data Source
- Smithsonian Institution, Digitization Program Office
- Credit Line
- Gift of the Estate of Celia Cruz
- Record ID
- dpo_3d_250014