The Sculptural Art of High Heels

Miniature Armadillo shoe by Alexander McQueen
 from the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition, Savage Beauty

Blink and you missed it. Shoes for Show: The Sculptural Art of High Heels was a fascinating exhibition that took place in east London for just four days at the start of November. Organised by online shoe store Javari and presented in three sections – Catwalk, Couture and Innovation – the exhibition prompted visitors “to consider the high heel, when taken off the foot and placed within the gallery, as a piece of art.” The Innovation theme also provided an introduction to the exciting work of a new generation of London-based shoe designers, such as... 

...Katie Eary, who graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2008 with an MA in Menswear. Straight out of college she was commissioned by Selfridges and had pieces shot by Mario Testino with Kate Moss for UK Vogue. British Elle described her as having “industry credibility as a menswear designer to watch.” These spiked leather-wrapped platform trainers with brass toe caps (above) were created in association with Nike. “Street couture,” is how Katie describes her work. “Treading the monumentally versatile line between Vogue and Vice.” Just to prove she’s human, we should point out that Katie Eary collaborated on Kanye West’s less-than-ecstatically-received debut fashion line this season (Anna Wintour’s verdict: “Ask someone else”). But you can't run in superheels without the odd stumble, non? Shoeblog is looking forward to seeing what Katie does next. 

Above, looks from Katie Eary's collections for s/s 2012 and a/w 2011 (including the Nike platforms in red). 
www.katieeary.co.uk



Dorothy’s slippers in The Wizard of Oz were covered in rubies (Shoeblog recommends the fascinating – and exhaustive – story at Wikipedia. Coincidentally, one of the half dozen pairs seen in the 1945 movie is due to be auctioned this year, on December 16, with an estimate of $2-$3 million. And they aren’t even real rubies...)



This ‘Return to Oz’ heel-less platform slipper is encrusted with copper sulphate crystals and is the creation of two graduates from Kingston University’s Fashion Design MA course. Niamh O’Connor works with leading-edge design research teams, including the London fashion laboratory Studio Nancy Tilbury. Emily Crane’s ‘Micro-Nutrient Couture’ is “a sensory world of transient fashion where no one but the individual will ever wear the same dress again.”

In an interview with Italian Vogue, Emily said, “I’m inspired by the idea that we need to find a more sustainable way to produce clothes. Growing clothes from edible materials is sustainable – and my kitchen was my very first fashion laboratory. Eventually I hope people might be able to buy the recipes I create in shops and grow their own unique fashion items.”
Above, a piece of ‘kitchen couture’ jewellery by Emily Crane.
Niamh O'Connor: tamagangan.blogspot.com  
Emily Crane: emilycrane.co.uk

Chau Har Lee's award-winning footwear is futuristic, architectural and sensuous. After a foundation course at Camberwell College where sculpture and textiles were her main interests, a meeting with Olivia Morris pushed Chau in the direction of shoe design. Cordwainers College and an MA from the RCA followed, then work with companies including Burberry and Georgina Goodman. 

Using materials both traditional and otherwise (like the perspex design above, image thanks to faddy.typepad.com), Chau pushes the boundaries of cobblery. One of her themes is the notion of shoes that can be disassembled and reassembled. In an interview with DazedDigital.com, she talked about the sci-fi creative process: “One design... was built using a 3D printer that deposits thin layers of liquid resin. A laser beam tells the resin where to stay hard and where to remain liquid. After 28 hours... all the liquid drains off leaving the remaining shoe.” Her creations are now available from Selfridges on a made-to-order basis.
www.chauharlee.com

Sophia Grace Webster is another Camberwell/Cordwainers/RCA alumnus. These white leather and cream python platforms, with pearls threaded through the wooden heels, are for Manolo Blahnik.

Sophia’s final collection at art college was inspired by African butterfly wings. “Many of the designs in my collection work as a pair,” she told British Vogue. “So the shoes look beautiful on their own but also tell a story when the wearer puts their feet together. For example on a pair of boots, there is a laser-cut patent wing on each shoe so when you put your feet back together a butterfly appears.” Sophia’s feminine and curvaceous shoes are stocked by Browns, and she has also designed for the high street as winner of the River Island Design Forum. (Image above thanks to allyouneedisstyle.com)
www.sophiagracewebster.co.uk

French-born Natacha Marro (above) opened her first shoe boutique in south London in 2000, after graduating from Cordwainers. Over the years her creations have become favourites of the international fashion press (US Elle, below)...

...and of the most fashion forward footwear fans, ie Lady Gaga (below) and Daphne Guinness.

Lady Gaga image thanks to coolspotters.com

In an interview with GraziaDaily.co.uk, Natacha Marro said, “A lot of work goes into making the shoes really wearable as well as beautiful. The stability of the shoe is really important. They have to be strong enough to be worn by a drunk person walking down stairs! I use screws inside the heel instead of nails. Next, I use a really soft leather to go around the foot. If I am making a glitter or a fabric shoe, I always make it just a tiny bit bigger than the person’s foot so there is room for the person’s foot to expand with the pressure of walking on high heels. Finally, I use an orthopedic insole with lots of cushioning. The inside can take as much work as the outside. The higher the shoe, the more padding there is inside. Daphne once said she can play tennis in my shoes which to me is the biggest compliment ever!” 

Daphne Guinness image thanks to streetfsn.blogspot.com

You can commission Natacha Marro, but be prepared to get in line behind David Bowie, Alison Goldfrapp, Grayson Perry...

www.natachamarro.co.uk

Scale models

 Following last Sunday’s post on leopard print, Shoeclub is donning the pith helmet once again in pursuit of big game. This week: snake.

“Python is ousting leopard as the exotic hide of choice,” according to the December issue of British Vogue. There’s certainly plenty of it slithering about the fashion spots of Moscow. I’ve been admiring these Baldinini heels (above) in the boutique on Tverskaya Ulitsa for weeks. As for the display in Miu Miu on Stoleshnikov Pereulok (below), it will either totally charm you or provoke an Indiana Jones-esque hiss of horror at the sheer volume of reptiles gathered in one store window. (Not to mention the sheer volume of white mice sacrificed for their upkeep...)

With all due respect to Mrs Prada, your Shoeblogger’s feeling is that, when it comes to snake, less is more. Knee-high snake boots risk making your legs look like they are being swallowed by an anaconda. Compare the ones above with these restrained but very chic metallic-heeled slit-front python bootees (below) also spotted on Stoleshnikov this week.  

Even if I agreed in principle, I couldn’t justify indulging in a legful of this season’s serpent, as I already have these...

They’re vintage Roland Cartier snake-print ankle boots (and gratifyingly similar to the a/w 2011 Dries Van Noten version, below.) 

Image via style.com

But if I was investing in snake this season, this is the look I’d be tempted to go for:

 These are Lanvin python-print trainers with fat laces in mustard grosgrain, and this is the very cool Dasha K. rocking them. 

Cat people

Leopard print boots are having a moment right now. Among the crowds enjoying the autumn sunshine in Ploschad Revolutsiy last Saturday afternoon was a pretty girl (above) darting about taking photographs of other pretty girls. I got her to stand still long enough to shoot her cute lace-up leopard-print bootees, though she scooted off before I found out where they're from.

Shortly after on Kamergersky Pereulok another pretty girl was toting an outsize  violin case and a slouchy pair of leopard boots, this time in knee-high ponyskin.

Back in the Shoeblog studio (a small patch of white wall next to the Vogue picture department), here's Katya Z and her lovely leopard-print ponyskin kitten-heel ankle boots from TopShop.

Katya again, above, in leopard-print lace-ups from Sam Edelman.

These featured in last week's post about brogues, but they deserve a second look: Elena B's fab leopard lace-ups from Atillio Giusti Leombruni.

Pride of place goes to Masha S and her amazing black suede and leopard-pattern fur wedge bootees from Ash (an Italian company with a very rock 'n' roll boots selection, take a look here.) 

Of course, the more fashion-forward (read 'older') among us have been hip to the joys of the leopard-print boot for some time. This one's from the archives: ponyskin desert boots by Emma Hope. Shoehorn has had them for years, and every time he wears them they are, ahem, a roaring success.

The Vogue brogue brigade

From Yves Saint Laurent and Le Smoking, to Lady Gaga as Jo Calderone (on the cover of Vogue Hommes Japan) fashion always gets a kick out of a pretty girl dressed as an even prettier boy. 

Images thanks to Style.com

 The autumn/winter 2011 take on the trend saw classic men's brogues on the catwalk at Dolce & Gabbana, above, and embraced in the offices of Vogue (below).

Atillio Giusti Leombruni is a family-run shoe company (founded in 1958 in Montegranaro in Le Marche – the area that's home to 90% of the Italian shoe industry, footwear fact fans.) AGL makes beautiful flat shoes and boots for men and women, like the iridiscent metallic oxfords Anna M is wearing here.

"Being beautiful and sophisticated does not depend on a 12-cm heel," according to Vera, one of the three Giusti sisters. Elena B is another fan of AGL and their wonderful leopard-print ponyskin lace-ups.

From Le Marche to Le Marais: Elena P sports a touch of Paris beatnik cool in Pierre Hardy leather derbys (above).

 I have been searching without success for the perfect pair of desert boots for months now. These might just be it: Olga B's prisitine dove grey suedes, from Carlo Pazolini.

 I also love Natasha L's tan leather quarter-brogues. Lightly love-worn, totally timeless – and they're from Topshop. 

Image thanks to Style.com

The menswear influence was also evident at Celine (above).
Compare the silhouette and detailing on the catwalk with these shots of the Rolling Stones from the sixties (below). White polo-neck sweater, Brian Jones style? Check. High jacket lapels and neat little shirt collars like Bill and Charlie? Check. Natty ankle slit on the trousers á la Keith Richards in '66? Check.

Images thanks to mysixtieslove.blogspot.com

And we all love the Stones' Chelsea boots. 

Ekaterina M (above) in black patent that Mick would be jealous of. Another fashion hit from Atilio Giusti Leombruni.

Margarita (above) rocks these truly classic brown calf Chelsea boots from Massimo Dutti.

The side zips mean they are not truly Chelsea boots, while the wingtip detailing is what is technically known as blind brogue. Which makes then a bit of a mongrel, but I love them. Shoeblogger in the world's most comfortable black leather ankle boots, from Nero Giardini.

Chasing the unicorn

Shoe fans who read our post last month on Moscow's Fashion Night Out may recall the Shoeblogger highlight of the night (in every sense): the incredible sky-high, heel-free, skin-tight black boots below.

You may also recall that I was too overwhelmed to actually gather any useful information – such as, for example, what label they were. McQueen? Berardi? Something bespoke from Berlin, Tokyo or Hollywood Boulevard? Well, time to put the record straight. Here are those Black Unicorn shoes in detail (below), and here is 18-year-old Andrey Simakov – who made them.

We met up in daylight a couple of weeks ago and I asked Andrey how a teenager from Ryazan comes to be creating the kind of footwear more often seen on YouTube or Style.com. "I first thought of making shoes when I saw the Alexander McQueen show Plato's Atlantis," he told me. The S/S 2010 collection featured shoes, including the Armadillo, instantly adopted by Lady Gaga but equally coveted elsewhere. "There were so many I wanted," says Andrey, " but I had no opportunity or money to buy them – so I decided to do it myself!"

It was an area he admits was "totally unfamiliar" to him. But, with an impressively thorough and fearless attitude, Andrey started reading everything he could find about the craft of cobblery. He attended workshops and collected as much information as he could lay his hands on about McQueen's Armadillo shoes. It took him three months to make his first pair. He was 16 years old.

The Black Unicorns have a 9cm (3.5-inch) platform and the heel – well, if it existed it would be an eye-watering 21cm (8 inches.) As you can see from the pictures, Andrey wears them as nonchalantly as if they were Converse. Can he walk in them? Do you really need to ask? Video evidence below: 

Since 2009 Andrey has made six pairs of shoes and is working on the seventh. He showed me another of his creations, the Dark Jesus platform (below).

Dark Jesus does have a heel – 22cm (8.5 inches) of heel, to be precise – and a 12cm (nearly 5 inches) platform sole. The shoe's other feature is the shiny black rubber dripping over the muzzle (there's no other word for it) and down the heel. 

Despite being frighteningly young, and self-taught, (or perhaps because of this), Andrey has a very specific aesthetic approach to shoe design. The classic McQueens combine baroque shapes with extravagant surface ornamentation, but Andrey is clearly most interested in form. The impact lies entirely in the shape of the shoe, the height of the platform, and the way it wraps around the foot. Whereas a bejeweled pair of Armadillos is definitely womenswear, Andrey Simakov's platforms could be worn by anyone (anyone with a head for heights, that is).

Unsurprisingly, Lady Gaga and Daphne Guinness are among Andrey's inspirations, along with James Dean, Kate Moss and Patti Smith. He admires "their manners, behaviour – they are all very individual." Currently at university (not studying fashion, although he does work part-time in the business), Andrey says he would like eventually to have his own atelier and sell his shoes. He has an exhibition coming up in Moscow and his home town of Ryazan. Meantime you can follow his progress on his blog: simakovshoes.blogspot.com. Catch him now – if you can.