It baffles me how much I used to love all things kitsch and cute and then quite quickly went off all of it in a flash. It was somewhere in my early teens after one too many trips back to Hong Kong where I would gorge on cuteness and subsequently overdosed on it. So then I went cold turkey and turned my back on anything that had a whiff of ‘kawaii’ about it. Slowly though over the past two years, the kitsch factor has slowly wormed its way back into my life. A touch here and there never hurt anyone of course and I promise it won’t ever get to the state of addiction that had me dangling five Hello Kitty phone strings from my Nokia 3210 and wearing Moomin ear muffs.
Kitsch and cute when perfectly executed though is more than acceptable and Mathieu Missiaen who I believe comes from Paris but resides in Toronto, Canada can FLAWLESSLY execute kitsch and cute in the form of his hand painted shoes which he is now selling on Etsy. A graphic artist making shoes his/her canvas is no new thing but transplanting his very 21st century grafitti and cartoon designs onto slightly weathered, clearly vintage shoes results in these quirky head-dipper shoes (I don’t ‘turn’ your head when checking out ppl’s shoes…I dip it very low….). Matieu will also customise your chosen vintage shoe with any design you wish too.
His MySpace also displays painted sneakers if men want to get some NDEUR action too as clearly Mathieu is willing to paint his designs onto anything…
wow! these are serious chic!
I’ve just been turned off kitsch altogether by the endless Bollywood stuff around me, but those shoes are adorable. Classy kitsch (five years ago I wouldn’t have thought that phrase could exist except as an oxymoron).
ah, hong kong. I’m from there myself and I know PERFECTLY well what you mean by the cuteness overload! I fell prey to that myself once upon a time, luckily I have outgrown that tackiness…but the memories of these prepubescent horrors still come back to haunt me from time to time.
And GREAT shoes from Mathieu Missiaen!
I love the red one. Because I’m addicted to red.
How wonderful are these? I have to have a pair!
Thanks for pointing me in the direction of these gems!
Well i’m probably the most “unkitsch” person ever, so this shoes are nothing more than scary in my eyes, but i have to say i couldn’t help laughing when you mentioned your Hello kitty phone strings, I do have an Hello Kitty phone string and that’s is totally at odds with my style.But Those things are irresistible, i can’t help it. 😉
all of those are seriously not kitsch!
To me they are closer to Pop Art, Peter Max-like, than kitsch.
I could see them on someone like Baby Jane Holzer, while she does the frug. They’re quite fun that way.
I want all those shoes!
Ahhh…I’m in my late teens, and yes into the whole ‘kitsch’ thing.
I try, and fail miserably, and diluting it out with some black.
But the end result is the same…’kawaii!’
I do love it though! It’s really interesting how our personal taste changes over time. What’d be more interesting is if from the time we we were 13 till now, we document four different outfits (one for autumn/winter/spring/summer) for every year. Then look back on it and see…
I bet a shrink would be able to discern our life story just by looking at those type of pictures!
thanks for this article , really nice !!!!
Aren’t these crazy cute? i happened upon them while tooling around Etsy the other day. the vintage pumps are a little too much for my laid back (read: boring) style but i might just have to send him some flats to cuten up….
If you click you heels 3 times, will these shoes take you someplace? LOL….they are so Judy Garland, in a very good way tho.
Hey Susie,
I wrote something about Mathieu a few months ago after interviewing him via myspace. His designs are great, i especially love his use of colour.
http://shoesmendhearts.blogspot.com/2007/08/ndeur-canadian-graphic-concepts.html
Yes, these are dope!
You should also check out Nick Deakin’s pair – http://www.flickr.com/photos/deaks/827627449/in/set-72157600007953032/
Unfortunately, I could not afford them (yes, he was selling the only pair he had!) so I turned to Etsy where I found these wonderful pieces you are featuring in this entry.
Hmm, is it a case of coincidence that I just found a similarly styled pair by Terry de Hallivand on ASOS? http://www.asos.com/Amy-Winehouse/Terry-De-Havilland/Terry-De-Havilland-Painted-Mule/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=175789&cid=4172&clr=Multi&Rf-400=715&sh=0
I wouldn’t describe these as kitsch either. To me most of the designs look like graffiti more than anything else.
oooo, torontonian
the designs are so cute, not in a cheesy way. very street based kind of cute.
inspired me to buy a pair of plimsolls to doodle on!
These are fab!! BTW, we love you at trendiki.com! We added you to our most loved list of blogs on our trendinista blog 😉