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ph/marques almeida s/s 2012

Someone chokes in a bottle of exclusive Swiss mountainwater, spilling a few drops on the wooden floor where Marques Almeida just opened his S/S 2012 show. Thick white rubber soles with straps accompany the anarchist look of destroyed and bleached denim. One year later, Céline's 'horror slippers' are the center of attention. The fur-covered showstoppers look like some serious trailertrash treasure. Fashion determined by aesthetics or beauty? I don't think so.

Ideals of beauty challenge designers to cross them, to shift from a focus of pleasing customers and investors into experimenting with pure unattractiveness. And we adjust. Sure, nobody's actually liking the fact that we walk on a bed of poodle-fur in the midst of summer, but who said fashion is practical anyway? The whole orthopedic footwear-trend started somewhere with the Birkenstock, a slipper with the unsexy German word 'gründlichkeit' attached to it. The whole 40+ population followed the footsteps of Gisele Bündchen, hoping to look just as damn hot in those leather Jesus-sandals. Mission failed, but fashion picked it up from here.

One of the horrible characteristics of the fashion industry is though that practicality dangles somewhere between the 124th and 286th place when it comes to importance. Footwear in particular transforms into a killing machine from the Medievals, using the sharpest point and highest stiletto heel. The comfortability and healthiness attached to the Birkenstock fades away with the manly plastic sandals which are sweaty, coarse and have a pure aesthetic function. And I said no. NO. I wouldn't want to be found dead in these. But why do I imagine a thousand times cooler version of myself wearing a pair of rubber clogs?

I blame the nineties nostalgia, the irresistible clean approach and flawless combination with denim. I don't know, I have no logic answers to the big question marks in your heads. But isn't falling in love completely irrational?

MTWTFSS | Monki | Marques Almeida via OC | &Other Stories

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