It was the end of 1990 when the opening of my exhibition took place, lots of people, friends and shoe fans joined me in this quiet unusual event. Unusual because it was hardly ever done before, at least in Madrid, to have an exhibition of Fashion rather then paintings or sculptures. It was great fun , I had been painting shoes, had plenty of drawings and models of the shoes I had made. Salvador specially made a portrait of me and other things we prepared together. Alejandro helped with his always brilliant ideas and with very little money but a lot of input , we made it look great.

the official invitation for the opening 

 .. and the first page of my exhibition guestbook by the very appreciated painter Sygfrido martin Beque

The whole idea to do an exhibition came months before when Gallery AF contacted me and asked me if I would be interested and of course I was. I was making little paintings of my shoes and since it was the first time I worked in oil I got very involved and it was hard to get up from the chair in front of the easel,  just like Salvador who once he gets in front of his work does not hear or see anything else and you can talk to him, it does not enter and he does not eat unless you put it in front of him and insist, that till as late as light permits. Well, with some instructions and insights from Salvador, I arrived at this…

and this…

and these…

below portrait salvador did of me, it was life-size and its a pity here you can’t see the feet with my blue and gold shoes…

Psychedelic

and some drawings

love boots..

and shoes, shoes, shoes..

 This was a critic of my exhibition in Spanish Elle, march 1991, and I will translate it here in case you don’t speak spanish.

Exposing or die

The where and why of Fashion is not limited to catwalks and specialized fairs. There is a step in between the design and the consumption of Fashion: the Art galleries, which are bringing  the outsider designers more near the general public.

During the last month of last year we saw a lot of exhibitions, the one I liked best was of the designer of the Atomic-Venetian shoes and complements Willy van Rooy. The marvelous shoes of Willy have a life of their own and also history. The tittle” The world at your feet” is an irony, although I would have preferred something like ” splitting hairs” That is what the designer is looking for and finds, disproving the cursed saying. Nothing better than a Gallery to show this daring artistry that would not have had the leading part on the cat-walk.

and yes, now thinking about it 20 years later, it was a perfect closure of my shoe designing time.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

designing jewelry…

..here drawn on Linda, 1991

Some of the hats I designed which I photographed here on Celine, my friend with the striking face. She was not a model but I thought her very beautiful….

and below the wedding dress I designed for Angelique when she married Louis Cobos, renowned director-conductor and composer.

Salvador was doing well in Los Angeles and Alegria and I prepared to go there now… Alejandro wanted to stay, so he stayed in the apartment and Alegria and I arrived in LA on the 2nd of July 1992 where Salvador, Nancy and another adventure was awaiting us.

 picture Hugh Scofield

Don’t forget to go to Alegria’s post where you can follow Salvador Maron

LOVE and PEACE