Second Skin // Shoes // Added 2011/11/06 at 11:03
As a designer of men’s footwear, I want to stimulate the renewal of men’s shoes. I reinterpret the recurring classical models such as the Derby, Oxford and the Monk through my fascination for the unfinished and the imperfect. I think that the dress shoe could use a more expressive and distinctive look, which relates itself more to the developments in men’s fashion.
I did this by literally revealing the construction of the shoe, in the ‘The Naked Shoes’ series. I like to reveal the hidden skin of the dress shoe and uncover what is beneath, and pairing that together with the imperfect, as we will see below.
To shape the concept of the unfinished and the imperfect, I used by preference unusual materials. As a designer, this will force you to approach the process in an unorthodox way. As an example, I used the material TPU (rubbery plastic) for my ‘Plastic Shoes’. This required a different way of connecting than the usual stitching technique. Therefore, I sealed all the patterns together and combined that with unfinished sealed edges and rough leather outsoles, making my shoes more outspoken.
For my ‘Curled Shoes’, I fixed the upper under a bent tension with the outsole. This allowed the shoe to stay in a bent position. The choice of a suede upper refers to inside out use of the material, also the patterns and drawing marks which are normally on the underside of the leather.
As for my ‘Upholstered’ series it refers to a vacuumed image. Therefore the shoes are upholstered in Lycra, styling and integrating all the details from the upper into a new skin of the shoe. The series of shoes which describe the concept of the unfinished and the imperfect best are the ‘Naked Shoes’. I literally revealed the construction of the dress shoe, where diverse materials in different colours come together. This created a new second skin of the dress shoe.
