ON THE LAST OF JAN JANSEN

From April 2, the exhibition 'On the last of Jan Jansen – 60 years of shoes and Dutch Design' can be seen in Museum JAN in Amstelveen. The exhibition shows the work of Jan Jansen, or 'The crazy shoe maker' as Vogue Italia affectionately calls him. For more than 60 years he has been a master in colorful, extravagant and groundbreaking shoe design. Text: Fleur de Jong
Image: Virtualshoe Museum

Jan Jansen plays with gravity

Jansen wanted to from an early age shoe designer become. During his military service on Saturdays he worked in a shoe store in Nijmegen. He cut open shoes there to see how they were technically constructed. In 1962 he went to a shoe workshop in Rome for six months to learn how to make shoes by hand.

Jansen became world famous with his technical constructions that play with gravity, such as the floating heel. Exuberant use of color is also characteristic of his shoes. He also designed the Bamboo Shoe in 1973, a shoe with a high wedge heel made of bamboo. The shoe designer's work is seen as a source of inspiration for generations after him. With the exhibition, Museum JAN also offers a platform to young talent and shows the cross-generational influence of Jan Jansen's work.

The shoe designer now has thousands of designs to his name and is a fashion icon at home and abroad. For example, in 2005 Armani withdrew a lace-up shoe from the market that, according to the judge, had been copied from Jansen. The exhibition also includes work by designers who have a similar style or are inspired by the shoe designer. The designer's memoirs will be published in a limited, signed edition especially for the exhibition. 

The exhibition can be seen from April 2 to August 29 museum JAN in Amstelveen.Photo: X-Ray shoeView here the interview that MASTERS previously had with Jan Jansen.