By Fashion Jeannie
I love shoes. Love love LOVE shoes (because anyone can look like Kate Moss’ feet in a pair of shoes). I must own at least 100 pairs. I also love design – in particular, furniture and product design (To paraphrase the Ab Fab girls, ‘I love things. Beautiful things!’)
So when I discovered United Nude, I thought I’d died and gone to style heaven.
In 2003, Rem D. Koolhaas (nephew of Rem Koolhaas – who designed the Prada building in Beverly Hills, and the Casa de Musica in Portugal) and Galahad Clark, a seventh generation English shoemaker from Clark’s the shoemakers decided to start a whole new brand.
Combining their two passions, they took footwear design to a whole new artform – creating shoes inspired by iconic furniture. Their first range of shoes ‘Mobius’ was inspired by the Barcelona chair created by Bauhaus director, Mies Van Der Rohe in 1929. This sandal was characterized by a single strip that formed the footbed, sole, heel and upper part of the shoe.
Mobius
Then, there’s the Eamz range inspired by Ray and Charles Eames’ famous aluminum chairs – complete with a metal heel that seems to suspend the shoe in mid-air.
Eamz Range
Best of all, these shoes are the most comfortable you can find. Madonna apparently owns a pair, and we know how cool she is!
As proof, United Nude’s shoes as well as other ‘couture’ shoes were put to a sprint test. Guess who won. Check out the youtube video here.
Who thought I’d be able to afford to buy (and wear) a design classic?
Buy United Nude at www.unitednude.com, or pick a pair (or 2, or 3) when you’re in North America, Europe or China (for a full list of stockists,check here)
Go to the website to see the full range.
A small selection of United Nude shoes are available at Takashimaya, in the shoe department, in the section labelled ‘French Sole’.
