The first invisi-heels should really be attributed to United Nude and then Marc Jacobs did some for his surreal-glam SS08 collection. But Gareth Pugh took them to the next level for his Wizard of Oz inspired AW08-9 collection and made them super-platformed with chunky buckles adding a metal skater-like support at the bottom. I like the fact that there’s all this chunkiness that is seemingly floating in air only to be anchored down by a big wodge of metal. It’s all strangely attractive to me in ways I can’t quite articulate. I’m not sure who collaborated with him on the shoes but I do hope they go into production just so I can experience the pleasure/pain of walking in these or at least figure out what is the magic behind keeping a person upright.
susie, i must tell you that i’ve been reading this blog, which i stumbled upon just randomly, since late october. i find that i keep coming back not because we have the same fashion tastes, in fact they are quite different, but because you seem to be fearless. thanks for inspiring this U.S. small town girl to not dress so small town.
t
Those boggle the mind. Is the bottom metal at an angle to the ground, not even sitting parallel to it? Better start those core-stability exercises for preparation in case the shoes are produced and we can try them on.
You know, they’ve been around a lot longer. Manolo the shoe blogger found an image from a 1950s space-fiction cover with them on it.
Its Nicholas Kirkwood shoes
http://www.showstudio.com/blog/25755
I would love a pair of these shoes as well….but im a totally broke student….need a job…gonna have to selling my things on ebay!!
These shoes must be like a game you play with yourself–fun!
Walking around with high heels it’s a pain for me and looking at this kind of shoes I wonder how I could feel walking around with missing heels… 😉
DO these shoes have heels? i can’t see them!
my fave sentence is this: ‘just so I can experience the pleasure/pain of walking in these or at least figure out what is the magic behind keeping a person upright.’
Pleasure/pain.. that sounds about right… gosh, they look so fantastic! I so so want these, even if I can’t move an inch in them!
Aren’t this shoes just like Marc Jacobs? I think they are terribly ugly.
i actually like them… and rather covet them…
i rather like these! it’s like some sort of rollerblade-clog fusion… the plastic buckles and the clog shaped shoe. absolutely fascinating!
I have some shoes in a similar style, but not so much of a platform and they are the comfiest shoes you’ll ever walk in. They don’t look it, but they are!
They’re by Irregular Choice.
oh my god! goths on patrol! theyre gorgeous! the notion of walking in them seems slightly impossible with a hefty pain/pleasure ratio, but i liken it to chinese foot binding- excruciating but there something endearing about girls fragilely tripping along in painful shoes that makes their appearance even more feminine.. if that makes sense?
lets pray victorias secret produce some rip offs like with the balenciagas 😉
Methinks there is some serious physics style math going on with the design of those shoes!
These do nothing for me. To me, some of these shoes fall into the category of “gay men seeing what kinds of crazy shizz they can get women to agree to.”
i guess Antonio Berardi was the first one who used the no-heel platform shoes…it was last year…and i’m sure about it
Ah – I should have known it would be Kirkwood!
Love the divided opinion on these…
Forgot to say that Antonio Berardi has also done the oddest looking heeless shoe…with no support at the bottom at all…. there must be some sort of science to it…
You might be interested in the Dutch shoe designer Jan Jansen. He already used the floating heels in the eighties!
http://www.janjansenshoes.com/
got any video of people walking in them? i’m confused!
These shoes just look bizarre. I want to try a pair on!
but HOW do you WALK in these???
Just what I was thinking—I’d like to see what it’s like to try to walk in them. They’re very surreal.
They’re damn ugly but that’s what fashion’s about at the mo, the ugly shoe! Although I’d never wear them it’s good to see designers pushing the envelope.
wow, crazy. they are definitely pretty hideous.
Don’t forget Manolo! He did this kind of heel in 2006. In fact there’s a pair in The Met’s Costume Institute colletion. LLG xx
I thought I recognised those buckles,
they have a sort of practicality and
chunkiness that makes them appeal to me.
They use those buckles as the adjustor
clips for boots in ice skating rinks :]
how have you people not seen the ones by poste mistress? they’ve been around for aaaaaages
I believe those Poste Mistress ones are by United Nude…which I mentioned…