PROSPECT HEIGHTS — High-heeled shoes ranging from 16th century Italian platforms designed to keep dresses from dirty streets to an 8-inch pump sculpted for Lady Gaga has teetered into an extended stay at the Brooklyn Museum.
"Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe" includes a 1959 pair of Ferragamo stilettos owned by Marilyn Monroe and a black leather platform bootie designed by United Nude for the "Born This Way" singer in 2012.
Though it was meant to end on Feb. 15, the exhibition has proved so popular it's been extended through March 1, a museum spokeswoman said.
Another highlight is a pair of "Healing Fukushima” by the artist Sputniko! that contains a mechanism that plants seeds into the soil as the wearer walks with them. The plants that grow from the seeds absorb radioactive substances from contaminated earth, according to the artist who designed them in response to the 2011 nuclear disaster.
"For most visitors, the most surprising thing may be that men in the west were the first to wear high-heeled shoes in the late 16th century," said Lisa Small, curator of the exhibit.
The shoes were mainly used to help men keep their feet in stirrups while riding horses, Small explained in a video published on the museum 's webpage.
Worldwide, heels have existed for more than 2,000 years, first as platform shoes, Small said.
It is believed ancient Greek women wore them to signal gender.
In many cultures, shoes were not only a fashion piece — they were also a social statement, experts say.
In Italy, platform shoes worn in the 15th and 16th centuries were used as a public display of wealth, scholars say.
The logic behind it was the higher the heel, the longer the gown had to be and therefore the more expensive the dress was. Some of these shoes were as high as 20 inches, according to the Brooklyn Museum's website.
In China, Manchu women wore high heel platform shoes to give themselves a "halting gait," considered attractive in the Manchu culture, according to the exhibition's webpage.
Many of the exhibit's shoes were loaned by museums from around the world, including the Montreal Museum of Fine Art, the Ferragamo Museum in Florence and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. More than a dozen design companies such as Tom Ford, Chanel and Prada also loaned shoes for the exhibit.
The Brooklyn Museum is located at 200 Eastern Parkway. It's open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m, on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Thursday. Entrance is free for visitors under 19 years old, $10 for students and visitors over 62 years old and $16 for adults. Click here for more information.
