SHOE lovers are set to be swept off their feet after a North-East museum announced a major fashion coup.

The Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle, has revealed it will be the only UK venue outside London to stage a new exhibition Shoes: Pleasure & Pain.

The exhibition, organised by the V&A, will display more than 200 pairs of historic and contemporary men’s and women’s shoes by 70 named designers, including Christian Louboutin, Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo, Christian Dior and Prada, many from the V&A’s unrivalled collection.

Exploring the agony and the ecstasy of footwear throughout 2,000 years of history, it will also examine the elation and passion they can arouse in the wearer.

It will be held in the museum’s award winning Fashion & Textile Gallery and will be divided into five themes: Transformation, Status, Seduction, Creation and Obsession.

Transformation will present shoes that are the things of myth and legend; Status will reveal how impractical shoes have been worn to represent privileged and leisurely lifestyles and Seduction will showcase shoes representing an expression of sexual empowerment or a passive source of pleasure.

Meanwhile, the Creation theme will look at how shoes are constructed, including the craftsmanship and supply and demand and the Obsession topic will examine the joy and fascination of collecting, owning and wearing shoes.

While the show will feature shoes worn by or associated with famous icons including David Beckham, Sarah Jessica Parker, The Honourable Daphne Guinness, Queen Victoria and Kylie Minogue, it will also explore extreme footwear such as tiny 19th Century lotus shoes made for the Chinese tradition of foot binding.

The announcement follows hot on the heels of the museum’s successful Yves Saint Laurent Exhibition last year, which drew in more than 70,000 visitors to the market town and was so popular it had to be extended.

Joanna Hashagen, the Museum’s Curator of Fashion and Textiles, said: “As the shoes will be exhibited thematically, not chronologically, each section will be a visual cornucopia of different shapes, styles, materials and colours.

“They are presented as very beautiful objects, many telling fascinating stories.”

Shoes: Pleasure and Pain opens will open at the museum on Saturday, June 11, and run until Sunday, October 9.

It will then tour internationally to the USA and China.

Tickets are now on sale and be booked by visiting thebowesmuseum.org.uk, or through Ticketmaster.

Until the end of April the Museum will also absorb the cost of the booking fee so there will be no additional charge to pay on top of the normal admission fee for those who wish to book early.