Last October I did three posts that focused on three unusual and different materials I particularly love: metal mesh, hair and sealing wax. I think I will resume the thread and focus in future on further materials I like.
Since summer is slowly approaching I will concentrate today on a material that in my imagination will always symbolise summer, cork.
My personal dream as a child was living in a house with cork-lined walls à la Marcel Proust (he was highly sensitive to sound so he had insulated his apartment with cork walls…). This dream was inspired by the fact that in the 80s (when I was a child) cork was having a great revival and it was very common to see cork bags, sandals or wedges on the beach.
My aunt still owns a large cork and white leather clutch from the early 80s that can be turned into a shoulder bag thanks to a long golden chain that you keep otherwise hid inside the bag.
The clutch wasn’t a designer bag, but was made in Italy following the highest quality standards and therefore it’s still in very good conditions and I must admit that, though I have seen a few interesting cork bags around such as the rose-shaped bags or minimalist clutches by Hoiming from the brand’s S/S 09 collection (mentioned in a recent post), I still have a soft spot for my aunt's bag.
One of the most popular products in which cork is successfully used is the classic wedge.
Though cork wedges are commonly attributed to Salvatore Ferragamo, he wasn't actually the only shoemaker who thought of using cork in his designs, yet he was certainly the first to successfully adopt and apply it to different models.
Ferragamo used pressed Sardinian cork to maintain the stability of the foot arch after the German-made steel shanks he used in his shoes became rather rare as importing steel in Italy was banned during the war.
Ferragamo’s nabuk leather sandal with a cork wedge created in the early 40s for the actress Ida Lupino or the sandal in black satin and gold kid goat with a cork platform sole and heel covered with a gilded mosaic of glass made for Carmen Miranda became iconic pieces.
One of the most common applications of cork is still in shoes and this is proved by various sandals from the current S/S 09 collections: from Yves Saint Laurent’s raspberry coloured patent leather pump with a cork wedge platform heel to Giuseppe Zanotti's more extreme pumps with black graffiti print, cork platform and bright red stiletto heel.
Emilio Pucci, Miu Miu, Christian Louboutin and Marc by Marc Jacobs are just a few fashion houses and brands that produced cork wedges, sandals and stilettos with cork platforms for the S/S 09 season.
Some of them are very different from Ferragamo’s classic wedges that call to mind pictures of women from Italy’s autarchic times, and are rather aestheticall
y and orthopaedically unpleasing (see for example Miu Miu’s sky-high python sandals with 140 mm stiletto and 40 mm cork platform).
One of my favourite interpretations of cork was the way it was often employed in stationery to produce beautiful cards or notebooks with soft and smooth cork pages (still have a few of them as I thought it was a crime to write on them…), but in more recent years a few designers tried to use cork to create new fabrics.
A Sardinian company called Suberis owned by entrepreneur Anna Grindi even started producing a sort of high-tech cork based fabric made by two strata, a supporting material and a cork sheet.
The result is a waterproof material that doesn’t stain nor scratch and can be employed for clothes (dresses, shirts, skirts and even padded jackets), cases, accessories and even to upholster different pieces of furniture. The material can be cleaned in a washing machine and can be easily ironed.
Sardinia contributes to 80% of the entire Italian production of cork and I'm sure this material will have new and exciting applications in future also considering the interest that many important brands have nowadays in ecological materials.
So I guess that, though I may never be able to have a house lined with cork walls à la Proust, I will still be able to dream about new products made with one of my favourite materials.
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
http://www.boxxet.com/my/badgeBN.80.15.js?boxxetId=u23036
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
I love your blog .This is a cool site and I wanted to post a little note to tell you, good job! Best wishes!!!
http://mosaictiledirect.net/left-category/stone-collections/ming-green-marble.html