Industrial baroque

technical description

Wedge playing with overlapping shapes and negative and positive spaces. Smooth beige leather upper with black leather lining, unexpected cuts that reveal the foot, and two stripes stretching from the back to the front that criss-cross over the toe to cradle the foot. Upper contrasted by the exotic grey and textured leather wedge with a cut-out space on the midfoot.

concept

Heather Blake's collection took its inspiration from digitally designed architecture with its organic forms and swooping baroque curves, transparency and light. It builds on tradition while embracing technology and taking new approaches to footwear construction. The designs played with overlapping shapes, negative and positive spaces. Unexpected areas of the shoe are cut away to reveal the foot, while negative spaces open up to contrasting textures or materials beneath. The relationship between form and light is paramount. Light is created with lasers, fibre optics and fluorescent plastics. Materials range from the transparent to the opaque. Hard, shiny silver accessories create reflections, while chiaroscuro is subtly sculpted by shadows cast by forms. The palette is monochromatic, while combinations of materials create a frisson: contrasting the banal with the exotic. The slick, shiny surfaces of Perspex and lacquer contrast with soft, dense suede, reflective silver, shimmering fibre optics and sparkling Shagreen. These shoes are to be worn by confident, theatrical women. Those who play with transformation, in using dress as a way of manipulating identity: to embellish themselves or create an illusion.

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