Those shoes are now part of an exhibition at the Cornell Costume and Textile Collection in New York titled “Women Empowered: Fashions from the Frontline.”  It will open on Dec. 6 and is focused on the “physical spaces where empowerment might occur: the sports arena, the street, stage, academy, and the government,” Jenny Leigh Du Puis, Cornell graduate student and member of the curatorial team, said. “In each of these public spaces, women have used fashion to overcome obstacles, become visible, and share their voice.”

The congresswoman’s worn-out kicks will sit alongside some of Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s iconic collars, a skirt suit worn by the first female US attorney general Janet Reno, gowns and accessories worn by suffragettes, and more.

Ocasio-Cortez’s shoes first attracted attention in June, when she tweeted a picture of their dilapidated, worn-through soles in response to critics who claimed her victory against longtime House Democrat Joe Crowley was down to mere demographics. The shoes, she countered, proved it was more about hustle.

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