Spike-a-Delic: The Warhol Museum's Shoe Gala

At Spike-a-delic, it was all about the shoes: delicate shoe-shaped cookies, floral arrangements sprouting from stilettos and drawings and photographs by famous designers. Spike-a-delic celebrated the ten-year anniversary of the Andy Warhol Museum. Warhol would love the theme as he was, “a foot-fetishist at heart,” said Thomas Sokolowski, Museum Director.

Instead of Warhol's shoe sketches, Nicole Miller, Manolo Blahnik, Isaac Mizrahi, and Paloma Picasso honored Warhol's love of shoes with drawings and photographs of their own creations. In his signature scrawl, Kenneth Cole decorated one photo with “in tribute to Andy Warhol... we will never fill your shoes.”

Much of this art, including Matt Lauer's golf shoes and Martha Stewart's illustrations of her garden boots are up for auction on eBay. The proceeds go to benefit the Warhol's educational exhibit and programs fund. Teresa Heinz Kerry, who attended the event, donated four million dollars to the museum.

Even though the purpose of Spike-a-delic was to raise money, the well-heeled attendees seemed more concerned with dancing to music spun by the New York-based MisShapes and eating delicious desserts provided by The Cheesecake Factory. Entertainment also included an eclectic, stylized group of models posing on couch-sized Chanel and Salvatore Ferragamo shoeboxes.

Guests' footwear included rhinestone Manolo Blahnik sandals, like the ones Carrie Bradshaw lost at the baby shower. But you don't need four-hundred and eighty-five dollars to show up in style, others adorned Payless heels with clip-on earrings and satin ribbons. Either way, this Spike-a-delic event and its party-goers' shoes would have made Andy proud.

Auction items can be found here:
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZtheandywarholmuseum

-Sarah Zoe Wexler and Aubrey Hirsch

This article can also be found archived at Pittsburgh Fashion.