fashion

Researching the history of the iconic cheongsam, the Chinese traditional dress

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On this wet Sunday afternoon, I am feeling very sorry for myself – laid up with a cold – but I am distracting myself by researching the history of the the cheongsam for Bound Feet Blues, The Book.


What I am learning is that clothing has national and political significance. The cheongsam originated with Manchu rule in China when the Manchurians from the North East overthrew the Ming Dynasty in 1644. They required all men to wear their hair in a plait – known as a queue – and everyone had to wear clothing in the Manchu style: with the high collar and side buttons. Those who defied this requirement could be punished by death. It was a way of dominating the Continue reading →

Fascinating historical photos of women with bound feet in my upcoming talk The Allure of Bound Feet

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I have been working on the slides for my talk The Allure of Bound Feet, which I will be giving as part of the  SEA ArtsFest 2014 Panel on Heritage in Asian Diasporic Performance.

Here is one of my slides where I will be talking about the process of footbinding and the fact that it can take up to ten years to be fully completed. The photos show girls at different ages with bound feet to illustrate the passing of time.

At the moment I have about 17 slides in total. The other slides will include woodcuts of ancient Chinese erotica – you can’t really talk about footbinding without talking about the sex appeal of the tiny foot – and also cross-gender Continue reading →

Do you have knee high boots like Emma Peel?

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I was a great fan of The Avengers when I was a child.

I’d never seen a woman as feisty as Emma Peel before – and it opened up my mind to what a woman could be! Here she is in her famous catsuit and knee high boots…

 

Wow, or what?

But at that time, I was a tomboy and did not Continue reading →

Imagine a grown woman with baby feet

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It’s difficult for us in the modern world to imagine how small bound feet were. Whenever I say to people that some of the smallest bound feet were only 3 inches long, they register that that is small but it’s only when they see exactly how small 3 inches is, that the horror of it hits them.

In order to illustrate how tiny bound feet were for “Breaking Tradition”, my award-winning talk inspired by the stories in Bound Feet Blues, I went online to order a pair of baby shoes. I searched and searched for baby shoes that were 3 inches long but the smallest size that I could find came to just over 4 inches.

The photo above shows me holding those 4+ inch baby shoes during Continue reading →

Do you suffer from shoe envy?

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In Bound Feet Blues, I talk about how I used to envy men their solid, sturdy shoes. Men’s shoes give them the freedom to stride around as if they own the world. Whereas some women’s shoes – especially the more feminine, delicate ones – felt like they hobbled me and restricted my ability to move around.

In particular, I loved the look of brogues and longed to own a pair. But men’s shoes are of course huge and would never fit me. And I would feet too embarrassed to go into the men’s section of shoe shops to ask to try their shoes on.

The great thing now about our post-modern, post-feminist world is that there are brogues made for women – like this rather elegant pair…

Shop the Masculine Tailoring issue of THE EDIT magazine. Church's | Burwood polished-leather brogues.

 

 

Do you suffer – or have you ever suffered – from shoe envy too? And if so, what and who did you envy..?

Continue reading →

What gorgeous barefoot sandals!

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I had never heard of barefoot sandals before until my pal Vincent posted a photo on Facebook. As I am obsessing about feet and shoes and all things pedial these days due to Bound Feet Blues, I set off into the web universe to find out more.

There are some amazing and gorgeous foot adornments  that can be found – here is an example. Isn’t it just gorgeous?

Tribal Indie BAREFOOT Sandals Ankle wrap sandal LEAF Toe Thongs crochet Gypsy Sandals Wanderlust PURPLE Barefoot Wedding bare feet GPyoga

With this current rare heatwave in the UK, this summer might Continue reading →

You can be trained to walk perfectly poised in stilettos, says walking expert – High Heels Masterclass

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I’ve been researching how the body moves when walking in high heels as part of the preparation for my solo show Bound Feet Blues. As I am performing the whole piece in bare feet, my aim is to give a flavour of the movements rather than walking in actual high heel shoes.

weak hip muscles

My Googling on the topic of walking in high heels took me to the Perfectly Poised website of a walking expert Martin Bell who offers a High Heels Masterclass. It looks like a brilliant service for all those women who Continue reading →

What about these studded and strapped biker boots – would you wear these?

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To counter balance the pic of high heel shoes I posted recently – which are not really shoes I’d wear these days – what about this pair of studded and strapped biker boots for women?

 

Would you wear these?

I surely would love a pair!

Though I’m not sure about the spikes in the toes and around the rim which could do my pals some damage if I crossed my legs and accidentally grazed their shins under the cafe table as we sip our lattes…

Continue reading →

Would you wear these?

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I would fall off these glittery black stilettos and I wonder what they would do to your ankles, feet and posture – but I can appreciate them from afar as fabulous art. Captured by Ann Bennett in Continue reading →

Would you get naked in front of a hundred people? Ten Women did

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In the finale of the theatre piece Ten Women, the women on stage tried an experiment. What would it be like to show our ordinary, un-Photoshopped bodies in all their frailty and glory to the world?

The all female cast asked themselves that and also invited any members of the audience to join them. Some of the performers stripped naked, others left their underwear on and still others remained fully clothed. No-one in the audience joined them apart from the writer/director and producer who were sitting among us.

It was a powerful, uncomfortable and also celebratory end to the work in progress show exploring what being a real woman with a real body means in a society where “the image of a hyper-sexualised, grossly exaggerated, objectified woman’s body is used to sell pretty much anything”.

TEN WOMEN smaller

Written and directed by Bethan Dear and produced by Amy Clamp from true stories drawn from the other women in the ensemble, Ten Women is a thought provoking piece that tells … Continue reading →