For her: Suddenly a princess
When the luxury group LVMH bought the traditional brand Birkenstock, the woman, who had long been disappointed by the fashion, initially thought that the portability of the health problems was over, now even this would come out of it Nobrainer become a kind of awkward designer sneaker. Today you have to say: The original product is still as good as before, and the house had made strange collaborations before. What all designer collaborations have in common, however, has been the zeitgeist-appropriate basic simplicity that went well with the cacti and the sad USM Haller office shelves in the living rooms of today’s modern hipster girls. Those same people recently got passionate about the Sex and the City sequel, in which Carrie Bradshaw still refused to wear flats. The latest Birkenstock collab will come as a shock to them now, as the master of the beautiful shoe, Manolo Blahnik, has created the Boston and Arizona models (to see here) transformed into princess models, with velvet upholstery, fine piping and heavy crystal buckles. And suddenly the hearts of fashion-disappointed people beat loudly again, even Carrie Bradshaw would be guaranteed to change her mind – the Blahnik-Birkenstock is nothing more than the orthopedically correct version of the high-heel, on which the entire SatC story was based. Speaking of correct: princess feet have been discriminated against long enough (Cinderella!) – the modern cactus woman must also like that.
For him: child again
The great success of the Brazilian sneaker brand Veja is perhaps still the best pioneering example of how an eco-brand can become a sought-after status symbol almost overnight. The company has sold 3.5 million pairs of shoes in the last 17 years, and even if only half of the range is vegan today, the ideal footprint of these sneakers is still quite good. With success, of course, the typical reflexes of the industry creep in. Even those that have never been requested by a customer, such as exciting Cooperations with Italian luxury brands, in this case Marni. The result is a sneaker that looks as if it had a visitor from kindergarten: all colorfully scribbled with felt-tip pens! But as a contrast to the otherwise decidedly cool and puristically designed Veja shoes, this is quite a nice point. And a bit of DIY charm should be integrated into every outfit today, because it underlines the strongly felt individualism of the wearer. However, there are two serious arguments against this design. First of all, we all know from the circus that the man with the funny shoes is a clown. And secondly, everything that looks like pop art still seems so terribly tasteless. Will that ever change again, blessed Keith Haring? It doesn’t matter, of course you can still see the 39-year-old senior advertising agency Jochens in front of you, happily napping to lunch in these shoes and ordering a poke bowl with gooseberries. But come on, the world is just serious enough.