British Shoe Designer Julian Hakes Creates Without a Sole
With London Fashion Week coming to a close today, lucky locals can still get their design fix this week thanks to the London Design Festival that runs from now until September 25th.
If you still just happen to be around London town after today and have time to check out the Festival, be sure to swing by the Deezen Space at 54 Rivington Street located in the heart of the Shoreditch Design Triangle (which we assume is a better looking and slightly less suspect compared to the one in Bermuda).
This past Saturday, the Deezen Space featured their first talent on the Deezen Platform (a one meter by one meter space that features a different designer each day for 30 days), showcasing a new line of women’s footwear designed by architect-turned-shoe-genius, Julian Hakes.
Two years ago, Hakes designed a shoe that featured no sole and no footplate with support being stressed on the ball and the heel. A single ribbon of material wrapped around the foot, tying it all together. This forward-thinking design first appeared on the design blog Deezen, which quickly went viral to other media outlets like Gawker’s brother site Gizmodo. Hakes’ superb vision was duly noted and greatly lauded on both sides of the pond.
But back in 2009, Hakes only had a design and a simple prototype in place of what he calls the “Mojito” shoe (which name comes from the fact that the shoe design resembles the twist of a lime peel). Now, two years later, Hakes has finally put it together and produced the first full line of the Mojito footwear, making it’s debut this past weekend.
(I, for one, am both intrigued and amazed by this shoe design that sure is walking proof that physics can indeed be fun and fashionable.)
To see more styles of the Mojito shoe, click through the photos in the slideshow above!
