While certain footwear designs are embraced by the market, others simply remain a creative expression for designers, existing as a moment-in-time example of experimentation.
"I've been playing around with the idea of [heel-less shoes] since the 1970's, and I always find it intriguing," said designer Manolo Blahnik. "It's not something that I do thinking of sales, it's actually quite the opposite - it offers me the chance to move away from what people expect from me."
Blahnik has created several heel-less shoes, including the Bhutan (pictured above) from his spring '06 collection, which is currently on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the Costume Institute exhibit.
"The fact that you don't really see that many people walking around the streets in heel-less shoes proves that [while] many might connect to them, they are not exactly rushing out to buy them," said Blahnik. "But when we did Arunium [another heel-less shoe] a few years ago, it sold quite well in Europe, though some [customers] were buying them as objects."
So, what do you think? Is this the year that the heel-less shoe becomes more than just a "dustable" and is actually worn? Several designers like Marc Jacobs have launched a slew of heel-less designs this Spring awaiting the "pent-up-demand" for such designs. I guess time will tell!
Story courtesy of Clair Windsor andFootwear News
