Silvia Fado

Since deciding to leave any possible career in architecture behind it has been rearing its head every so often just to let me know its here to stay and will forever be part of my academic history. Amazingly it has cropped up in the most interesting of areas - footwear. I have a major soft spot for designs and designers/architects that have dabbled in footwear and Silvia Fado is just that; hugely inspired by architecture and knitwear and passionate about footwear.

Fado's latest collection 'Kinetic Traces' looks at the way the body moves, along with fashion design and high performance sports footwear. With fashion footwear often pretty to look at but not so comfy to wear Fado is exploring the relationship between functional and high end fashion footwear. Her designs are fantastic and have some great elements that really make you want to look closer at the design. Fado graduated at London college of fashion so for all you budding footwear designers Fado is a great example of what you could accomplish following a career in footwear.

W - www.silviafado.com

F - Silvia Fado

I - @silviafado_shoes

Shoe of the Week

‘Mojito’ - Julian Hakes

When architects release a conceptual (and realised) footwear design, I know I’m in for a treat. After my visit to the Killer Heels Exhibition in NYC one particular gallery discussed the strong relationship between architects and footwear design which resonated with me. Architects, I have come to realise are always searching for the next innovative method of reproducing a conventional object but using ergonomics and design as a way to lead and inform the design process.

Julian Hakes has done just that. His ‘Mojito’ shoe leads by example, he went about designing footwear using an architects head, analysing the stresspoints on a shoe and using that as his basis of this design. Now to look at, the shoe looks like a beautifully sculpted piece of art work thats aesthetically pleasing on the eye, but for me the genius part is that this design wraps aound the foot without any sign of the footplate giving the illusion of a light and organic shape. For me this design sits right in the middle of the age old question; form over funtion, or function over form? It functions just as well as any other type of footwear but has completly turned the conventional design of a shoe on its head.

It has featured in lots of press material in the last few months, and of recent they have been cropping up on a number of fashion blogs. I think the design deserves every bit of praise it has coming its way, I’m looking forward to seeing how they play out in the world of fashion and how stylists and bloggers pair them up in everyday fashion which is exactly what they were made for.

Personal favourites:

Mojito - Bronze and Bronze £159.99

Mojito - Purple and Nude £174.99

Mojito - Electric Blue and Pewter £174.99

Website

www.julianhakes.co.uk

Instagram

@julianhakeslondon

Twitter

@julianhakes

Style
Mojito

A number of colours to choose from (check the website for choices)

Price

£135 upwards

Stockists UK

www.cloggs.co.uk