Pair of shoes with straps c. 1939

Here at the Rijksmuseum is a pair of shoes with straps, made by A. van Goethem. What strikes me is the material, the texture of the crocodile skin – each scale a little block, like a pixel. I try to imagine what it was like for them to make these shoes. The clicking and cutting of the leather, the careful stitching, the hammering of the soles. Was it repetitive or meditative? Were they thinking about who would wear them? Maybe they imagined the click-clack of the shoes on a city street, or the feeling of dancing in them all night long? The straps crossing the feet would suggest elegance and security. It's funny to imagine, isn't it? These shoes, like any work of art, speak to the culture that produced them, but also to the ongoing conversation of making, and how craft can become art.