lessons from bernard rudofsky, circa 1944

looking into ergonomics and fundamentals of shoe shape and function I disovered this chap: photograph to show how modern shoes do not match the shape of the human foot.

From left to right: Plaster cast of an adult's deformed foot which has taken on the shape of a shoe; wooden last; present-day shoe; plaster model of an imaginary symmetrical foot which corresponds to the shoe manufacturer's idea of human anatomy." via Getty

updates

Rather excitingly I have some snippets of news I thought I should share..my work will be published in a new report to be featured on Mintel, as well as a new Footwear design book to be published next year! I have also found a sponsor interested in developing my sole unit for manufacture and will be hopefully be working with them from the new year to start some testing!

krak on

Reed Krakoff SS11 beauts via garance dore. So excited by some of the new season shoes from fashion week, especially the Nicholas Kirkwood collaborations.

heh

Lernert & Sander Selfridges window installation "shoes" - "A humorous take on fashion as an ideal escape from the daily grind." via blinkart

patricia please

I often look to architecture and furniture for inspiration and Patricia Urquiola is a Spanish designer who's products I really love. Fusing touches of craft and exactly the right amount of texture and detail to be interesting but not fussy, I've previously picked out many of her designs without realising but only just discovered the website bonluxat.com which makes it really easy to see all of them in one place. I especially enjoy her chairs..

barefoot forward?

"Barefoot Running promotes Front and Mid -strike which allows the runner to take more advantage of elastic energy stored in both the Achilles tendon and the longitudinal arch of the foot. This develops more calf and foot muscle strength, and avoids uncomfortable and potentially injurous impact."
William Jungers. Barefoot Running strikes back. Nature Journal. January 2010 via Terra Plana

Yet again I find myself looking to innovative Terra Plana products (previously the designed for dissasembly "pop" shoe) and now the vivobarefoot range and research which I find really fascinating. The idea that performance running shoes and cushioning could potentially be making it worse for us to run is both scary and revolutionary and I've been trying to find out more about the research behind it.

"Vivobarefoot is a revolutionary, back-to-basics design based on the simple principle that being barefoot is the healthiest way for you and your feet to be. An ultra thin puncture resistant sole allows your feet to be as millions of years of evolutionary design intended - Barefoot."

Whilst being barefoot millions of years ago was as nature intends it, I'm sure there are various arguments against now - for one given the man-made often tarmacked environments we've created for ourselves - but it's interesting to see the professor in this video running barefoot in city streets. One thing's for sure given all of my foot and back problems, I'm really tempted to have a go!

body laboratory

Last friday I attended the Kingston MA Fashion Futures show "Body Laboratory", a new course led by Nancy Tilbury who has worked with a number of companies including Philips on research-led design work fusing fashion and technology to explore new product concepts. Unfortunately I missed the static exhibition there so have been trying to find out more about the students display of work and stumbled on this video detailing digital draping and print manipulation. I've always been partial to a good print, especially one engineered for a specific product (as Jonathan Saunders first collections did or McQueen has done fantastically in recent years) and had never thought about using projection to do so, but what a great idea. It's also exciting to see a fashion course happening in a university with such a diversity of fields - from architecture to product design and engineering and I'm sure there will be exciting things to come from this course in the future.

Jonathan Saunders SS05

Alexander Mcqueen SS10

bodyworks

Researching for a new project I'm doing I discovered the work of Marilene Oliver, an artist and researcher exploring the relationship between the newly developing digital environment and representation of the body:

"The virtual world created by the computer is one that provides no place for the physical body. As communications technology and the use of the Internet is becoming an integral part of our lives, the absence of the physical in the virtual space is destined to provoke changes in the physical body and in our relationship to it in the real world. My work centres around this relationship, seeking to explore and create ways of intimately representing the physical body."

Although the underlying motivations for the work are quite conceptual and really interesting, the physical pieces she produces use technology to produce really beautiful installation type displays, all focussing around depictions of the human form, and often using MRI scanning to produce sculptures which appear in slices. I really like this idea of collections of different things, or slices which on their own would mean nothing, but when pieced together create an interesting image or creation. I also think it would be really interesting to see how products could be developed around some of the ideas and technology here.

its a bit of an animal

Boucheron pink gold ring with black diamond snout and ruby eyes, via blushless

Milk it

Some magazine press in Milk X magazine - rather excitingly I've been asked to do an interview for the next issue!