If the Shoe Fits: Footwear, Identity and Transitions
Advisory Board Meeting Agenda
Conference Room, ICOSS
27th April 2012
Present: Efrat Tseelon, Jenny Hockey, Alex Sherlock, Rachel Dilley, Victoria Robinson,
Maria McClean, Fiona Candy , Sophie Woodward, Rebecca Shawcross, Jane Seddon
Apologies were received from: Gill Rose, Giorgio Riello, Caroline Knowles, Wesley
Vernon, Kath Woodward and Caroline Evans.
Presentations and Activities
1. ‘If the Shoe Fits: Footwear, Gender and Identity’, Women’s Studies Research
Seminar Series, University of York, 16th November 2011 (RD, JH). The
presentation was very well attended, mainly by postgraduates. The focus of the
paper was issues to do with wearing high heels and the negotiations women go
through in deciding whether and how they will wear them.
2. An abridged version of this paper was also given to University of Sheffield staff
and postgraduates at a Sociological Studies departmental seminar on 7th March.
Again it was well attended.
3. Exhibition in the Interdisciplinary Centre for the Social Sciences (ICOSS),
University of Sheffield. This included representations of shoes (from newspapers
and magazines, greetings cards, calendars) combined with preliminary data to
display the process of research, plus a film made by Alex Sherlock of people
walking towards or past the camera, shot at foot level. Both university staff and
research participants attended a launch of this exhibition (see
www.sheffield.ac.uk/iftheshoefits)
4. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis training course at Bristol University,
attended by Rachel
5. The Impact Agenda, seminar series at the University of Manchester, attended by
Rachel .
6. The University of Sheffield Crucible Program – Rachel has been selected to
attend a number of workshops that fosters interdisciplinary research
collaborations.
7. PRINCE2 project management training – Rachel will be attending this course at
the beginning of May.
8. Fashion Tales Conference, Milan, June 2012. Two papers to be presented, one by
Victoria Robinson, Jenny Hockey and Rachel Dilley exploring some of the
theoretical issues related to the project called ‘Embodied Consumers and
Footwear: Mundane and Extreme Transitions’. Rachel is also presenting a paper
focusing on the use visual methods in research on fashion and the body entitled
‘Filming Shoes, Exploring Identity’.
9. Paper submitted to the Women’s Studies Quarterly special issue on fashion (15th
March, 2012): ‘If the Shoe Fits: Gender, Identity and Fashion’.
10. Abstract submitted abstract to British Sociological Association’s ‘Ageing, Body
and Society’ Conference on July 6th, 2012. Paper entitled: ‘”Nana wouldn’t be
seen dead in any of these shoes”: footwear, identity and ageing’.
11. Abstract submitted by Rachel Dilley for the International Sociology of Sport
Association World Congress, University of Edinburgh, July 2012. Accepted.
12. Abstract submitted by Alex Sherlock to the Gender and Visual Representation
conference at the University of Winchester, to be held in September 2012.
13. Review of the second edition of Riello and McNeil’s ‘Shoes. A History from
Sandals to Sneakers’ by Alex Sherlock, published in Critical Studies in Fashion &
Beauty, 2011, vol. 2.
Main Project Fieldwork Update: Case Studies (Rachel Dilley)
First
Interviews
Shopping
Second
Interviews
Activities
Third
Interviews
Complete
15
6
4
4
1
To do
1
10
11
11
14
Shoe Keys
Shoe Logs
Scrapbooks/
Journals
Complete
14
9
2
To collect
1
6
13
Through the process of going on shoe shopping trips with participants data is
emerging that are substantively different in nature to that of the first interviews. A more
nuanced look at ‘taste’ in relation to identity, as well as desired and imagined selves
come to the fore. The multiple and numerous ‘problems’ of shoe shopping are
experienced first-hand through sharing in the process, decidedly marked by frustration
and ambivalence for many participants.
Second interviews have sought to build on previous encounters and utilize the shoe
logs (daily record of changing of shoes through the course of the day for 3 weeks) and
video data from activities that have taken place. Activities to date have included a
burlesque evening, weights training, a pedicure and a Zumba class. Some second
interviews have also included an exploration of the participants’ scrapbook/journal
entries.
Themes around transitions are evident, including both transitions through the course
of the day, such as work to leisure identities, and over the life course in relation, for
example, to redundancy, moving house, health and ageing.
Rachel’s presentation stimulated discussion of the insights yielded by film of shoes as
part of activities or events where shoes were not the primary focus of that activity. Also
of the kinaesthetic empathy felt by members of the Advisory Board whilst watching film
of a pedicure and of weight lifting in a gym. We also considered the way that
participants chose the activity we were to film and the extent to which it was typical of
them, plus the preponderance of leisure rather than work activities.
Impact and Public Engagement – Planned Activities (Rachel Dilley)
1. Working with schools - one primary, one secondary.
2. Piloting a training session for podiatrist in Sheffield as part of their CPD
3. Working with designers and producers at Clarks and piloting a training session
with other shoe designers and producers to encourage thinking about
participatory design.
4. Exhibition – collaboration with Northampton Museum
5. Documentary film – commissioning professional film production services
6. Developing a media strategy – targeted media engagement
PhD Project Fieldwork Update (Alex Sherlock)
Alex presented her ethnographic research that she’s conducting at Clarks headquarters.
She has spent a month and a half there and is due to spend another month interviewing
and observing participants. She has so far interviewed 30 people involved in the various
stages of the biography of the shoe. She briefly described some themes that have
emerged prior to analysis. The people she has interviewed so far have allowed her to
see the ways in which employees make a transition from ‘non-shoey’ to ‘shoey’
(participants’ own terminology). Early indications suggest that this transition is
facilitated by prolonged exposure to the ‘product’ (the shoes) and representations of
shoes through the design and product development processes. She showed a brief clip
of one of her participants, the shoemaker, to illustrate a ‘shoey’ perspective. The
shoemaker ‘lives’ shoes and is at the extreme end of the ‘shoey’ spectrum. Alex
summarized by explaining that many of her participants’ working experiences affect
their perceptions of representations and objects in their everyday lives. Almost all of
her participants’ own shoe-shopping experiences have been heavily affected by their
increased exposure to shoes and production processes. Most participants have become
aware of the poor quality of many shoes and resent the fact that they feel they are being
‘ripped-off’. Vicki commented that she liked the way the shoemaker said that shoes
make him think, and Sophie liked his turn of phrase that ‘your feet warm up to the shoes
and the shoes warm up to your feet’ – which is indeed true of anyone’s experience of
trying new shoes. Vicki commented that one doesn’t have this transition when shopping
for other items of clothing. Fiona remarked that it was interesting that he found it
difficult to put his experiences into words. Sophie observed that he represents a
contradiction between his authenticity as a traditional and ‘authentic’ shoemaker, and
the fact that his job requires him to mimic factory-made shoes.
Early indications of key codes for Alex’s fieldwork are words such as perceptions,
changing perceptions and authenticity. Clarks brand themselves as an authentic brand
and recognize the necessity to change perceptions. These are ideas that the employees
are negotiating in their day-to-day roles. A debate ensued about the definitions of
authenticity.
Alex’s fieldwork report led to a discussion of the hierarchies and priorities evident
within particular individual’s shoes and the varying levels of investment they might
have in different shoes, both at the point of sale and later (where initial values and
priorities might change). There was also discussion of gender issues and brand
loyalties, plus the cross-generational transmission of family shoe cultures, transmission
that might move upwards as well downwards. Shoe choice and the notion of safe and
more daring choices were also raised, along with issues around renting single function
shoes for particular leisure activities.
Alex made the observation that the creative people at Clarks tend to wear Converse
trainers or Desert Boots. Maria agreed that if a designer chooses not to wear their own
shoes, then Converse are a ‘neutral’ alternative: a ‘non-shoe’. The notion of a non-shoe
was of interest throughout the group.
Toward the end of the meeting the group shared ideas about dissemination and impact.
Effrat suggested having an exhibition where people can bring objects to pass on, making
an event of the recycling process. The Northampton Shoe Museum have been
considering doing an innovative installation where people can swap shoes to recycle
them. This raised a discussion around the complex notions of disgust surrounding other
people’s shoes. Alex suggested it would be interesting to see which people are happy to
wear other people’s shoes and which would find it disgusting and why.