Fantasy Footwear

Pregnancy Shoe 1976

Crafted in baby pink, this shoe could be a living, breathing body – itself begetting a new life that emerges from beneath a transparent membrane, soft like silk stockings. A mother archetype with a touch of the uncanny, both alien and familiar.

Rust Shoe (Model Mary Stuart) 1976

Fashion loves decay – at least the gradual decay of objects, while denying the inevitable decay of the body. Metal, a material often associated with the masculine, rusts under the soft powers of water, which here has become the co-creator of a fragile yet powerful reminder of the cruelties and mercies of time.

Lick-Tongue Shoe 1974

A long, curved, almost phallic tongue is reimagined as a wine-red sole. Anticipating how its rough, warm touch might feel sends shivers down one’s spine. This stylish accessory speaks to the things that many of us desire and consume, from shoe shopping to meaty meals.

Mattress Shoes 1973

Deceptively comfortable, a mattress is a site of invisible erotic labour in the home, as well as a yearned-for place of rest. Tightly strapped to your feet, both are always within reach – a reminder that there are some things you can’t walk away from.

^{Mattress Shoes was purchased with funds provided by the European Collection Circle in 2025 and will be included in Quarters, a display about ideas of domesticity opening at Tate Modern in March 2026.}

^{Anastasiia Fedorova is a writer, curator and fetishist. Her first book, Second Skin, is published by Granta.}