HALLOWEEN HEELS

Wear with black socks for maximum effect !
For a bit of fun, and for Halloween, I drew up this Pumpkin inspired design – complete with the Stem as the heel.
There are materials suitable for uppers made from Cactus plants, Pineapple skin, and there are leathers that are dyed with Olive extract, and Rhubarb, but I couldn’t recall finding any upper materials made from Pumpkin skin available ?!
A quick google search later, and I was drawn into the world of fruit leathers – which are snacks – also known as fruit roll-ups ?!
Quite a different world to what I was looking for !

PRACTICED UP IN BLUE

If there’s one person’s blog I consistently recommend to people, it’s Seth’s blog. Ever since it started arriving into my inbox (with my permission!) over ten years ago – I must have read almost every one – and he writes one every single day! As I’ve opened the aSTOKA studio a little wider (ie. this website) I thought I’d start a fun project – designing shoes inspired by books. Not just any books, but books that I’ve either been recommended or have recommended myself. Two days ago I had a trial run with a sketch of Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow. Today begins a daily Practice … which is what The Practice is about. Doing something daily, however sketchy or otherwise it might be, however imperfect it might be. The practice of shipping creative work. Thank you Seth, for everything you do!

THINKING FAST AND SLOW

I bought Daniel Kahneman’s ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ a few years ago, and only got round to reading it in the last few weeks. It’s about the instinctive vs effortful decisions we make. Instinctive being Fast, effortful being Slow.
He begins chapter two : “In the unlikely event of this book being made into a film, System 2 would be a supporting character  who believes herself to be the hero…” – which left me wondering, what if it were made in to a shoe ?
I’ve only finished chapter two, so it’s probably the case that this sketch, relatively quick and an instinctive one, would be the System 1 thinking Kahneman writes about. Once I’ve finished the book, I’ll design a shoe that reflects more of the content of the book. Well, let’s see …

RAFAEL PAVAROTTI – for DRIES SS22

 

The stunning photography by Rafael Pavarotti – of Dries Van Noten’s SS22 womenswear collection.
Well worth checking out the whole series … here

VALENTINO SS22 : INSIDE OUTSIDE

Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Valentino is always worth watching … this time opening up in to the streets of Marais.