Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’1948 legendary film The Red Shoes probably inspired generations of little girls to become ballerinas or at least enrol in a ballet school.
Yet the story that loosely inspired it, Hans Christian Andersen’s eponymous fairytale, probably gave many children out there persistent nightmares of cut off feet clad in red shoes dancing away "over the fields and into the deep forest".
While scaring children, Andersen’s story deeply fascinated and inspired many fashion and costume designers out there, who reinvented and reworked the red shoe theme in their creations.
It wasn't therefore a surprise to see Andersen’s red shoes reappearing again also during Paris Fashion Week at Talbot Runhof’s catwalk show.
The fable was definitely behind the red shoes worn by the models, while the dancing theme was evoked by short tutu-like dresses and by the final performance by the prima ballerina of the Bayerisches Staatsballett (obviously in red pointe shoes…).
But the collection was also informed by a subtle theatricality, maybe derived by the design duo’s work as costume designers for Cayetano Soto’s "Carmen", that debuted a few months ago at the Dortmund Opera House, and Ulrich Peters' production of Leos Janácek's "The Makropulos Case", opening next week at Munich's Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz.
Red shoes were mixed with another inspiration, armours: Johnny Talbot and Adrian Runhof adorned their model's legs, arms, necks and hands with red or clear plastic gauntlets, gorgets, greaves and shoulder pieces designed by Amy Thompson.
Red was a popular colour for stockings during the Renaissance (think about the tights worn by one of the magi in Gentile da Fabriano's Adoration), but in this collection this nuance was also employed to hint at something disquieting.
Worn with slightly gothic silvery grey and black or elegant bright turquoise dresses and matched with red tights, Thomson's armoured propylene pieces gave the illusion the models had actually been walking through blood rather than dancing en pointe.
Even prints had something slightly disturbing about them: blood-like red splashes in flowery formations decorated black dresses, while potential innovation was explored in the multi-coloured gowns with a laminated effect on the surface that gave them a dark romantic aura and in the rigid tulle gowns with complex and architectural cascades of ruffles.
One doubt remains: did the design duo only have in mind Andersen's Red Shoes when they came up with the designs and styling for this collection, or were they actually thinking also about Kim Yong-gyun's Bunhongsin (The Red Shoes, 2005; check out video at the end of this post. Warning: people who get easily scared should refrain from watching it, it's a bit of a bloodbath…), a film inspired by Japanese and Korean horror stories?
Maybe they were, after all the cursed and destructive red shoes endowed with supernatural powers in Andersen's tale and in Kim Yong-gyun's film symbolised desire, one of the most vital and powerful energies behind fashion.
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