A New Fashion Design For Sneaker
At the ComplexCon, Takashi Murakami had teamed up with six young artists or designers including Mathieu Hagelaars, David Mawdsley, Suzanne Oude Hengel, Helen Kirkum, David Mawdsley and Salehe Bembury and launched 6 pairs of “Sneaker For Breakfast” special shoes. You can't describe these shoes with a simple word good-looking or ugly. Although they are eye-cathing because of their strange, most of them look like normal shoes that can be wear. Only a pair of sneakers called “Up to your eyeballs”, which seemed to be an unfinished product are made of all kinds of fabrics patchwork together at first glance.
The creator of this pair of "Up to your eyeballs" is sneaker designer, Helen Kirkum, who is known for her deconstructed stitching. Her style is as unspeakable as the look of these shoes. She often uses shoes from the recycling station to remake them. In short, she constantly challenges people's imagination of shoes and the design norms of the footwear industry.
After ComplexCon, Helen Kirkum gets great attention from the sneakers circle. But don't think that Helen Kirkum is just a nobody favored by fortune. She has already cooperated with adidas, Timberland and other brands before. For example, in the AlphaEDGE 4D running shoes that are popular among shoes circle recently, adidas invited Helen Kirkum to reinterpret the core concept of this product with her special techniques that is difficult to imitate. Before setting up her own studio, Helen Kirkum once worked for the women’s shoes department of adidas Originals.
In the Timberland CONSTRUCT: 10061 project, which was created by Timberland and British design studio ConceptKicks, Helen Kirkum also worked with brand-name’s craftsmen to bring a subversive look to the Timberland Boots.
Through the above examples, you must have a certain understanding of Helen Kirkum's pasteup-like creative approach. If Helen Kirkum only stays at the level of surface, it is no different from the current sneaker custom-made players, but the key is that there is still a hidden thinking on sustainable development behind Helen Kirkum's work.
Helen Kirkum started to be interested in footwear at the age of 17, but she initially wanted to pursue fashion design. But after attending the footwear course of Northampton University, she opened the door to footwear design and explored a new path. As we all know, Northampton is a local shoe-making holy-land in the UK. The craftsmen here are adhering to the principle of “wearing for a lifetime” and sticking to the traditional method of shoemaking.
Affected by this experience, Helen Kirkum later entered the Royal College of Art to study footwear and accessories design. Since Helen Kirkum created some seemingly patchwork sneakers, she has worked with the recycling center in London to deconstruct the old shoes that were recycled, remove all the available parts, and then combine them into various shapes according to the demands. She made sneakers like playing with puzzles.
In the process of collecting old shoes, Helen Kirkum realized how many things people thrown away in their lives. We are used to buying shoes and wearing for only a couple of years until they wear out or even throw them away because we don't like it anymore. But the indifferent consumer concept has an impact on the environment. What Helen Kirkum do is to create a different novelty perspective, combined with sustainable production methods. Although these shoes are not new, they are cool enough.
You may feel that everyone can do the work of dismantling, splicing, and even sewing, but the question is how to combine them and what ideas do you have? Helen Kirkum is interested in all types of art, especially Dadaism. According to her words, the expression of free and unrestrained and social commentaries resonate with the way she making shoes. Including sculptures and installations, those shapes and textures that seem unfinished always give her an inspiration. Just like when working on a sewing machine, you never think of what the final product looks like.
In Helen Kirkum’s work, you can feel the beauty of the material she wants to show and the diversity of the shoes. Sneakers that can't be worn can be remake into a key chain like what Helen Kirkum does, which is neither wasteful but creative.
There is also a set of conceptual shoes made for the new fashion designer Per Götesson's Spring/Summer 2019 series. Except for the soles of Converse Chuck Taylor, the whole body is completely entangled with ordinary sports white socks. It is a veritable "socks shoes".
When asked how to create these unique things, Helen Kirkum thought it was naive that helps herself. Because of the innocent, as a newcomer in the field of sneakers, she can do whatever she wants. With this innocence and care about environmental issues, Helen Kirkum was later recognized by the industry. In 2016, she won the grand prize of the accessories category in the International Talent Support Competition, and the judges included Demna Gvasalia, Lotta Volkova, Sarah Mower, Giovanni Pungetti, Chief of Maison Margiela and many other experts.
Helen Kirkum offers some new ideas for the entire footwear design industry as other designers try to design new shoes or add color to existing styling. Her work is between art and product, and at the same time reflects the concern for environmental issues. What's more, it's also fun.