Faithful WORN readers, you might have noticed lately our current obsession with shoes, ranging from the website’s Blahnikisms to our Tumblr logs of behind-the-scenes editorial work (covers, articles, etc.) and you know, the odd Doc Marten with hardcore hardware.

Have we gone retifist on you? For our upcoming themed summer issue, absolutely. The Shoe Issue is a first for us, and we’re very excited about the contents: explorations into sneaker freaker collectors, the cinematic fetishizations of a pilgrim buckle shoe, double-paged vegan leather bound spreads, and much much more.

In celebration of this monumental occasion, we’ve set aside the Heartbreak Karaoke Machine and Slow Dance cards for a curated Bata Shoe Museum exhibit! The ART & SOLE exhibition (May 21 - June 6) will feature twenty-four interpretations of that understated fash classic, Keds. We’ve been lucky enough to get those white canvas pairs into the hands of Renata Morales, Clayton Evans of complexgeometries, Angie Johnson of Norwegian Wood, and Damzels in This Dress; artists Allyson Mitchell, Hilly Yeung, Hollie Dzama, Marina Dempster and Team Macho. The exhibit will close with a v. fashionable gala (cocktails! hor d’oevres! 1960s Motown/Stax/Hi Records music courtesy of Shake a Tail DJs!) and live auction fundraiser which will give our readers the chance to bid on these wonderful creations, with a portion of proceeds supporting Fashion Cares (in support of ACT).

WORN is selling online NOW $28 advanced tickets (which includes a TWO YEAR WORN subscription — as you can tell from the CAPS overload, it doesn’t get any better than that!). We’ll also be selling tix at the following retail Winkel (1107 Queen Street East), Left Feet (88 Nassau Street), and Frou Frou (1616 Queen Street West).

Ok. So onto the next best thing — what are you going to be wearing for our fashionable event? Please tell in the comments.

Rea McNamara

Tags: dancing, Fashion Cares, Keds, party, Shake a Tail, shoes, SOL[e]D!, The Bata Shoe Museum, worn event