top left: rene magritte, ‘the red model’, 1935; oil on canvas, musée national d’art moderne, paris.

bottom left: marcel duchamp and enrico donati; window display, brentano’s new york 1945, courtesy of zabriskie gallery. Magritte’s ‘the red model’ itself became a model through its use as a cover for the second edition of andre breton’s ‘le surrealisme et la peinture’. In 1945 duchamp and donati collaborated on a window display promoting the book at Brentano’s, the New York bookstore. They reproduced the shoes in emulation of Magritte. 

right: pierre cardin, men’s shoes 1986. photography: irving solero, Fashion Institute of technology new york, edward c. blum design laboratory, gift of richard martin.

All photographs came from the book ‘fashion and surrealism’ written by Richard Martin and published by Rizzoli in 1987. the book was made to accompany the exhibition ‘fashion and surrealism’ at the new york based Fashion Institute of Technology.