Museums

Pair of Reebok freestyle bubble-gum pink ankle top leather trainers.

The aerobics and jogging crazes of the 1970s and 1980s saw the trainer rise to prominence. This example was the first trainer style designed for women and is still in production today. This style has been copied by every brand since the 1980s, proving it to be a popular design.

Pink is a controversial colour evoking strong feelings of attraction and revulsion. Before 1650 century, pink was often ignored in favour of shades of red and there was no word in the English language to properly describe it. From 1700 in France, pink was a fashionable new colour and was worn by both men and women as a sign of taste and class. Pink was particularly championed by Madame de Pompadour, the celebrated mistress of King Louis XV of France, A pair of pink mules can be seen in the painting The Swing by French artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard.

Pink is often portrayed as a feminine colour, but originally in the early 1900s blue was worn by girls as it was seen to be dainty whereas pink was a stronger colour, so suitable for boys. This didn’t change until the 1950s when advertising pushed pink as a colour exclusively for girls with designers such as Roger Vivier and Elsa Schiaparelli producing pink footwear.