PRINCE, HEELS AND ART… What is sacrifice?

Lord I might get tired,
But I, I’ve got 2 keep on (we sacrifice)
Walkin’ down this road, (we sacrifice)
Keep on walkin’ down this road (joy around the corner)
When I reach my destination (we sacrifice)
My name will be Victor

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These are the original shoe lasts which were used to make Prince’s iconic zip boots from 1990 to 2000. They were used to make hundreds of pairs over that decade.

In 2015, I was unbelievably lucky to have won them on an auction site. It turned out that the seller was the shoemaker, Cos Kyriacou, and he works and lives just around the corner from me. When I went to collect the lasts, he generously shared some of his stories from the days when he was working directly with Paisley Park.

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The connection with Prince started back in 1990. Prince was using a Los Angeles based shoemaker called Andre#1 but was having problems with the heels coming loose from the punishment he was giving them when he was dancing on stage. He came over to London for the Nude tour in June and Prince had a pair of the shoes sent to Cos for repair in his Old Street workshop. The heel had broken off again and Prince was looking for an urgent solution. Cos immediately struck on the idea to design something to strengthen the heel – and he created the legendary steel heel support which has now become an iconic element of Prince’s style. He made up a pair, Prince liked it and started commissioning further pairs of shoes from Cos. It went from there and from 1990 to 2000, Cos made his shoes pretty much exclusively, meticulously coordinated to in-house designs by Paisley Park, and occasionally other designers Prince worked with, including Versace. So that’s from just before Diamonds & Pearls era, Act 1 tour, Hits era, Come, Gold Experience, Glam Slam, his wedding to Mayte, Emancipation, Rave…. all those iconic outfits had shoes designed by Cos, and manufactured in his studio using these shoe lasts.

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Cos has some captivating stories about how his work for Paisley Park was set up and his dealings with them over the years, but he also remains circumspect about details, honouring the traditional confidentiality between a gentleman and his shoemaker. He is amazingly humble considering he has worked with people like Prince & Versace. Having recently moved premises, he had decided to clear out some clutter and I think there was an element of wanting to draw a line under the past – hence selling the shoe lasts. He seemed happy about selling them and was pleased they were going to someone who would really appreciate them...

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