In yesterday's post we looked at unique hand-made platform shoes from the '70s. Let's continue the footwear thread, but get off our platforms to explore more minimalist and flat-soled shoes - Vibram's FiveFingers and their more fashionable incarnations.
Invented in 1999 by a design student, Robert Fliri, looking for footwear that allowed to move more freely and naturally, Vibram's FiveFingers were developed and introduced in 2005. Originally the shoes with their distinctive flexible sole on the foot that separated each toe, were targeted to yacht racers to maintain grip on slippery decks while offering a barefoot experience. Soon, though, they became a favourite with fans of barefoot running thanks to their flexibility and the fact that they provide the foot with minimal support allowing a natural running style.
Eventually this minimalist innovative invention became popular for other activities, including working out at the gym, doing yoga and well, going for the odd supermarket run, but fashionistas laughed considering the FiveFingers as the world's ugliest shoe despite its cult following.
Yet, as the years passed fashionistas caught up and left hardcore barefoot runners behind: Arthur Arbesser launched in his A/W 17 collection a collaboration with Vibram.
In that occasion the Austrian designer took Vibram's signature FiveFingers sandals and reinvented them into leather sock booties mounted on a rubber sole or on a solid coloured platform.While you could still see Vibram's FiveFingers original designer there, Arbesser gave the shoes a luxury spin so that the final design ended up looking more similar to luxury footwear such as Prada's S/S 13 zori-cum-tabi sock boot than to Vibram's sporty sandal.
The fashionable collaborations with Vibram continued last year when in February Japanese brand Suicoke remixed the FiveFingers sandals for its Spring/Summer 2020 collection. In that case the signature "toe shoes" were relaunched in a series of new colourways and in the usual ankle-height and in a boot silhouette.
Fascinated maybe by the possibility that ugly design could offer him, last March Demna Gvasalia at Balenciaga launched his own collaboration with Vibram.
In this case the collaboration featured two limited-edition sneaker styles - the Toe Lace Up, resting on a heavy-duty suspension heel that called to mind shock-absorbing footwear with a spring under the heel, à la Z-Coil, and a high-heeled style. All the designs, part of Balenciaga's A/W 20-21 collection, were made from recycled knit.
The results were a bit questionable, especially when it came to the high-heeled style, that seemed a subversion of the original concept behind Vibram's FiveFingers as the shoes that were supposed to allow you to walk more naturally were recombined with a high-heeled boot.
The collaboration continued in Balenciaga's Pre-Fall 2021 collection, launched yesterday, this time with further FiveFingers styles in recycled knit or leather to give the shoes that luxury twist.
More colours were also added: Balenciaga's Pre-Fall 2021 lookbook shows indeed the footwear in beige, dark brown, black, white and emerald green.
But the FiveFingers saga doesn't end here: a week ago Midorikawa (a Japanese genderless brand based in Japan, designed by Tadu Midorikawa, one of the finalists of the 2021 LVMH Prize) and Suicoke launched another collaboration with Vibram.
Vibram's FiveFingers by Suicoke x Midorikawa (yes, there's always safety in numbers...), come in two versions, ankle-length and booties and feature painted toenails in a neutral, bright red or royal blue shade (a trick first developed by Schiaparelli who made surrealist gloves with lacquered red nails that led to many different interpretations throughout the decades).
The shoes in this case look surreal, but the final effect also calls to mind other shoes with red lacquered nails such as Comme des Garçons' iconic oxford shoes complete with nail polish ( A/W 2009-10) that were actually related to Pierre Cardin's 1986 men's footwear that were in turn inspired by René Magritte's "Le Modèle Rouge" (but along this line we've also had Alexander McQueen's S/S 2009, Cèline's S/S 13 and Dior's Haute Couture S/S 18 Magritte-inspired shoes).
Available from Fall 2021 in different nude tones - Ivory, Snow and Mocha (well, at least in this case they made an effort to offer the shoes in a wide range of skin tones) - they are guaranteed to offer an unsettlingly uncanny effect (that we may have loved when we were hit by sudden lockdowns and a mani and pedi session turned into a much desired forgotten ritual...).
It is not possible to accuse Vibram's FiveFingers by Suicoke x Midorikawa of plagiarism because they are different from the usual trompe l'oeil five-finger shoes released so far.
But what's interesting about these collaborations between Vibram and other fashion designers or houses is the timing.
Suicoke, Suicoke x Midorikawa and Balenciaga's styles for Vibram may indeed be based on the same shoe, but, if you analyse them in detail, you realise they bear some differences, yet you wonder why all these collaborations had to be released around the same time.
This is not a new practice in the realm of fashion and readers may remember awkward collaborations of two distinct fashion designers with the same brand for the same season (remember Junya Watanabe and Sacai for The North Face?). It is obviously true that two entities collaborating with the same brand usually end up producing entirely different products, and it is also true that quite often a brand collaborates with a designer for a specific market, and picks another designer for another market.
Besides, as a brand you may be keen on collaborating with as many designers as possible who may be bringing innovative ideas to your original product.
That said, consumers may get confused by such collaborations that end up generating very similar products, so, if you're a young designer willing to work with a major brand and you're already in talks with it for a collaboration, always ask them if they are developing similar collaborative projects in the same year with other companies and fashion houses as well.
At times similarities between different collections are simply accidental, after all avoiding to launch similar products and designs is already difficult in a world in which we all borrow and remix so much. But trying to avoid falling into the similarity trap for two different companies while collaborating with the same brand is often almost impossible.
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