Marloes ten Bhömer
I was browsing through Interior Design magazine at Borders today. It wasn't a magazine that I usually read but due to the incredible amount of free time in my hand, I have exhausted the repertoire of magazines that I normally read. I picked up the magazine because it was doing a fashion boutiques special and while I flipped through the magazine, I was pleasantly surprise to find more than interior design in it. I came across an article about a Dutch (i think) designer, called Marloes ten Bhömer, who specializes in shoe design.
On first sight, the objects that she designs do know give a clue to what their function is. One only perceives a piece of moulded plastic, or strips of leather or carbon fibre suspended in space. The function is only revealed when a foot slips into the object and the purpose of the different parts become obvious.
Her intention is to challenge design conventions and break obvious archetypal forms, incorporating uncoventional techniques and materials. Assumptions of how the different parts of a shoe are ignored and purposely broken. A flat vertical piece of carbon fibre on the side of the foot acts as the heel, plastic materials that folds to obscure the outline of the feet, a blobish watering can-like form that is a heelless boot.
The designs are still in a theoretical form. While I applaud her daring approach to creating the shoes , I'm not sure if some of the designs are suitable for normal wearing without causing irreversible damage to your spine (although plenty of women are already torturing themselves with high heels, she's just pushing the boundary further). In the sources about her which I found, I barely hear her mentioning anything about ergonomics. The agressive lines of some of the designs are certainly not friendly to the feet. The shoes look as practical as Hussein Chalayan's table skirt.
Shoes for the future, maybe, but we won't be seeing these shoes in stores yet but some of her ideas have trickled into real products during her internship at Tod's and she had also provided input in designs for Alexander McQueen.
More pictures at Marloes ten Bhömer's website
Article in Interior Design magazine
On first sight, the objects that she designs do know give a clue to what their function is. One only perceives a piece of moulded plastic, or strips of leather or carbon fibre suspended in space. The function is only revealed when a foot slips into the object and the purpose of the different parts become obvious.
Her intention is to challenge design conventions and break obvious archetypal forms, incorporating uncoventional techniques and materials. Assumptions of how the different parts of a shoe are ignored and purposely broken. A flat vertical piece of carbon fibre on the side of the foot acts as the heel, plastic materials that folds to obscure the outline of the feet, a blobish watering can-like form that is a heelless boot.
The designs are still in a theoretical form. While I applaud her daring approach to creating the shoes , I'm not sure if some of the designs are suitable for normal wearing without causing irreversible damage to your spine (although plenty of women are already torturing themselves with high heels, she's just pushing the boundary further). In the sources about her which I found, I barely hear her mentioning anything about ergonomics. The agressive lines of some of the designs are certainly not friendly to the feet. The shoes look as practical as Hussein Chalayan's table skirt.
Shoes for the future, maybe, but we won't be seeing these shoes in stores yet but some of her ideas have trickled into real products during her internship at Tod's and she had also provided input in designs for Alexander McQueen.
More pictures at Marloes ten Bhömer's website
Article in Interior Design magazine
posted by kit @ 12:48 AM
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