I am a shoe freak. I have a lot. Some I have never worn, bought just because I just had to have them. I like shoes as they stay with you forever. Feet are the only parts that don’t gain weight along with my body. A pair of shoes I believe can brighten and freshen up any look. Got a boring outfit on today? Change the shoes and you’re good to go.

That’s why I got all psyched when I saw TCDC would be having a new exhibition: Portraits of Shoes.

I love exhibitions at TCDC for its story-telling style of display. Like the Vivienne Westwood shoes that took visitors through her punk pioneer days, or the recent noodle cart exhibition, showcasing different utensils and styles of food found in the streets of Bangkok. TCDC crew always manage to turn a square room into a maze-like mini world where you can literally explore a show. For this one? I was quite taken aback when stepping into the exhibition hall. Why? It’s just shoes, on cased tables, in different corners of a big empty room.

I went in hoping for histories of shoes, with different styles of different eras, stories on prominent shoe makers and their creations like Blahnik and Louboutin, histories of different types of shoes, famous shoes you would never in your life see in Bangkok like the Chanel gun heels and or even Ginger Spice’s famed platforms, etc. etc.

Well there actually were historical and cultural pieces like the Chinese Golden Lotus shoes and Geisha’s getas and some tribal wears from before shoes were fashion. But among those few there were just some extravagant boots, shoe sculptures, some guys’ worn ballet slippers, and just too many designer stilettos and flats in styles that you can pretty much get from Paragon or Gaysorn.

A TCDC show usually takes me about 30-40 minutes to finish. It took me about 10 for this one. They could have done it so much better, considering the fact that it is part of La Fete, a festival that celebrates the culture of home of fashion capital.

I did learn (of) one thing from the show though. Pring. Now that is something to look forward to on my next trip to Paris.

Click the image for part two.

A comic by Note Pongsuang.

Finally I had enough time to whip up my own theme.

OK. Well. I cheated. I actually based it on another theme, as I was looking for an idea and also a template that would let me have big header space for my little collage.

Yes those are my things. Well except the cookie and the leather tag, those were obviously photoshopped in. I took the picture of other stuff myself, but thanks to my crappy Sony Cybershot and its incompetent 8-megapixel feature, it was too spotted and too blue, despite the photo being taken at around 10am this morning.

So I just nudged up the contrast and saturation bars for the funky blinding colors.

And hey, the picture has a hidden message you know. There was a reason why I spent my first day as an unemployed doing this.

The original “torn-up” look was a bit pixelated so I fixed that too and then added the paper bag background to make it look more organic.

So yeah. That’s it.

Exhibition about death, molds and mortality at TCDC. The most
awesomest show I've seen here.

Things I regret no. 286: Choosing Advertising major instead of New Media.

(credit: Keng.com)