It is always exciting to spot connections and draw comparisons between textiles and paintings or traditional designs and more modern pieces. A few weeks ago we looked at a patchwork Korean bojagi that called to mind Piet Mondrian's compositions, let's continue the Korean crafts trend and look at these Korean straw-woven sandals.
The most used type of straw shoes around the first century in Korea were called jipsin and were made with rice straw and mainly favoured by ordinary people. More complex designs like the mituri that had a more pronounced canoe-like shape and were made by tightly weaving fine hemp fibers, were instead used by women and scholars.
It was also possible to find straw shoes that incorporated other materials, such as sedge, mulberry, hanji (traditional Korean handmade paper made from the inner bark of Broussonetia papyrifera, colloquially known as paper mulberry) and leather.
The sandals featured in the first three images in this post - currently available on the Tatami Antiques site, an independent online marketplace for Japanese antiquities that often offers intriguing textile pieces and ideas for fashion designers (the item is sold by kikue, a seller specialised in Korean antiquities) - refer to the jipsin model and feature four core ropes woven to the sole. The heel strap in these shoes was usually strengthened by weaving paper mulberry bark and the shoe strap was tied with a knot in the middle so the shoe would not easily come off.
Centuries have passed, but straw is still used in shoes, especially summer sandals. While we mainly see raffia footwear as this material is more flexible and pliant, yet still very resistant, it is not unusual to see straw being used for natural looking shoes, like the sandals by Bottega Veneta featured in the last picture in this post.
Obviously the configuration of these luxury shoes is different and the Bottega Veneta sandals integrate woven straw and raffia that reproduce the trademark intrecciato design of the brand, but the idea of using a natural material for a key accessory is the same. Can you think about another traditional design from the past incorporating a natural material that is still being used nowadays?
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