Sandra Plantos

Thinking outside of the box is where I'm going with todays post. You are probably on this blog because you have a love for shoes, and as you can probably agree when it comes to shoes, even though they can vary in style massively, ultimately they're all designed essentially with the same components. The obsession comes in when a shoe is designed with a new way of thinking, Sophia Webster reigned last year with a new aesthetic, hailing from cordwainers like most of the high end designers we admire. Sandra Plantos another footwear designer completing her masters at London College of Fashion, has designed a completely original collection, using her Architecture degree as inspiration, but I can assure you, they won't be anything like your imagining. Plantos has put a heavier emphasis on the construction of the shoe, whereby the use of concrete rebar (reinforcing steel) and plywood are the only materials used in this collection reflecting her architecture degree. For me they're conceptual pieces of art work since the construction inhibits movement, but this all underpins what Plantos had originally set out to do; create a new concept of footwear, to aid slowing down the pace of our daily routines. If this collection is any thing to go by we will be in for a treat with future collections.

Manolo Blahnik

Fleeting Gestures and Obsessions

Just the name of the book sounds like something you could desire without realising you wanted it in the first place. This highly anticipated book is set to be published by Rizzoli on the 8th of September 2015 featuring more than 40 years of life work by the coveted designer himself - Manolo Blahnik. This coffee table book (a rather expensive one starting at £85.50 for a hardback cover) documents drawing inspiration from the worlds of architecture, art, film, literature and some never-before-seen photography of his designs. Containing 250 designs from his archives this could serve as more a present or dare I say it an early christmas present purchase? (I know I shouldn't be thinking about christmas yet) but I know it will certainly be on my birthday present list!

Release date: September 8th 2015

Price: £85.50 (hardback cover)

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

News

Killer Heels Exhibition - Brooklyn Museum NYC

About a month ago my very thoughtful boyfriend surprised me to a 5 day trip to NYC for my birthday. Anyone that knows me will know just how much I love everything and anything NYC related. Infact one of my dreams would be to eventually move out there. So you can just imagine the ball of tears and shock I was in when he told me at Heathrow departures that we were infact going to NYC and not Rome (which is where I thought we were originally going) Little did I know he had pretty much planned half of the trip with things that I have always wanted to go and see. As fate would have it there just happened to be an exhibition on heels and of course that also got placed on this list. So on day one we headed out early just to do that - the Killer Heels Exhbition at the Brooklyn Museum. (I know girls I’m on to a winner with him!!)

The exhibition was an absolute must see for heel obsessed women. Eastern Parkway is the nearest subway station to the exhibition and takes you practically straight to the front door of Brooklyn Museum. The building itself is beautiful, and just what you would expect of a museum. We paid $15 each, but this was optional. You can pay nothing or as much as you like. The suggested amount at the counter was $16 each.

Brooklyn Museum

The exhibition took you through the ages of the shoe, starting off with the development of the heel through to the present day heel, and just how far they have come in terms of design, conventionalism and pure crazy ideas for heels that can be adapted to look like art work on your feet. The best part of the exhibition was physically looking at a shoe that I had seen in the media but not managed to see in person. The use of visuals and digitial media made the exhibition varied so it wasnt just shoe after shoe which for even a shoe addict like me can get slightly repetitive and dull. There were tiny snippets of recordings throughout the exhibition showing the creative process of a shoe with the designer developing their ideas of a shoe design, designing the ‘last’ that the shoe will be moulded around through to it being put together. This for me was very insightful, I love to watch and follow how other shoe designers develop their work and how they record their work so that I can better mine to.

(Sorry the Images are blurry, the whole exhibition was super dark, so some images I had to take on my phone instead of my SLR and I couldn't use the flash within the exhibition - Typical!)

Architecture and Shoe design was a section of the exhibition that really caught my attention, having an architecture degree I have always noticed a connection between architecture and shoes but was never able to really define what made them so similar untill reading a caption in this particular gallery. It gave my thoughts about the relationship between fashion and architecture some perspective; 

"Architecture and shoe design share some concerns: enclosure and protection; The relationship between structure and facade; and the expressive harmony of solids, voids, and contours. The consideration of stress points, loads, flexion, and achieving elevation makes the comparison even more compelling when it comes to high heels"

sorry its blurry!

I ended up purchasing the 'Killer Heels - The Art of the High Heeled-Shoes' book that was dedicated to the exhibition and set me back around 30$ but when you are a shoe and book collector its pretty hard to turn away especially when you have already flicked through the book. The book features a number of shoes from various designers that were exhibited and some extras just to add to the collection within the book. A good buy if I do say so myself. Most definitely a coffee book but for me a source of inspiration from some of the top footwear designers in the world. 

I was completely seduced by the display of shoes within the exhibition and don't think its confined to just mad shoe lovers either, it makes for pretty light viewing (I went with my boyfriend and even he didn't find it to strenuous to go through) and I would recommend having a visit if you are in NYC.