Birkenstocks in spring-summer collections
IN A CONSTANT WONDERZINE HEAD talks about trends from the podium that can be adapted for your wardrobe for the next six months. In this issue we understand how German orthopedic shoes - birkenstocks - suddenly became fashionable and appeared on the Marni, Givenchy, Céline catwalks and also in the collections of mass market brands from Topshop to Zara.
How it all began
Sandals are a rather primitive shoe, also familiar to everyone. The German shoemaker Adam Birkenstock is mentioned in the archives of the 18th century. By 1902, his descendant - Konrad Birkenstock - invented an innovative soft insole that follows the curves of the foot and is suitable for the prevention of flatfoot. In 1964, Birkenstock developed the first flexible instep support suitable for mass production. For a long time, this practical and comfortable orthopedic shoe (however, an extremely controversial design) was in demand among older people, for example, residents of Chinatouan in New York, as well as hippies and other representatives of the counterculture. Even then the name "Birkenstocks" passed into the category of common nouns.
In the 90's, thanks to rock, and more specifically to the lead singer of Sonic Youth, Kim Gordon and stylist Daisy von Fürth, became fashionable. At the time, Daisy was one of the most sought-after stylists, working with a bunch of stars and styling their clips: from the video "Sugar Kane" by Kim Gordon to the iconic, in terms of style, clip "Cannonball" The Breeders. In 1993, on the initiative of the Beastie Boys, who already had the X-Large streetwear brand, Kim Gordon and Daisy von Fürth launched the X-Girl line of women's clothing. Under the X-Girl label, they sold stupid T-shirts with inscriptions, tennis skirts, and other nonsense, which suddenly became extremely popular. So, the style of the brand was supported by many young stars from Sofia Coppola to Chloe Sevigny, which, by the way, promoted the brand. At one of the X-Girl shows, which took place in the mid-90s on the streets of Soho in New York, models walked in birkenstocks. After that, all district mods changed their stock in birkenstocks. Later on, a young Kate Moss appeared in Birkenstock stock in pictures of Corinne Day for The Face magazine, as well as Chloe Sevigny again, but already in the 1996 Miu Miu advertising campaign, which was shot by Jürgen Teller. In 2002, Gwyneth Paltrow went to Birkenstocks for a walk around London - and health shoes again began to be bought in large quantities.
How to wear Birkenstocks now
Birkenstocks struck back a year ago. Then Phoebe Failo, after a long time, was the first to show ugly birken stocks, which she also decorated with colored fur. Thus, Phoebe has set two trends: for colored fur and ugly-shoes, by the next season both have reached maximum popularity. Now the company Birkenstock is experiencing a rise again: their original shoes, which served as a prototype for design interpretations, are in the greatest demand. A couple of original Birkenstocks can now be purchased even on the Net-A-Porter website, they cost around 150 euros. On the website of the company Birkenstock the cheapest pair will cost 40 pounds. The brand plans to sell about 12 million pairs worldwide from the USA to China this season and mainly relies on the models Arizona, Madrid, Giza and Boston in monochrome colors: black, white, brown and blue. The Italian brand MSGM, Ricardo Tishi for Givenchy, makes birkenshtoki its main shoe this season, showing its version of birken stocks. Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein shows birkenshtoki in both men's and women's collections. Birds of reptile skin demonstrate Trussardi, Tommy Hilfiger combines them with swimsuits, neoprene shirt dresses, trousers and T-shirts, and Dries Van Noten came up with a pair of cork platform and reptile skin. In the Marni collection there are both birkenshtoks on the platform, resembling geisha shoes, and a lot of interpretations of classic models. Birkenstocks can be found at Marc Jacobs, J.W. Anderson, Helmut Lang, Jil Sander, Delpozo.
Birkenstocks are comfortable shoes (especially if you take the original Birkenstock) and are suitable for both the city and the beach. Such widespread use of birken stocks indicates mainly that they fit well with literally any clothes: with narrow and wide trousers, skirts of any length and shape, with a suit or with an evening dress.
BEWARE!
Regarding beautiful dresses, here Birkenstocks look best - the ugly shoes only emphasize the beauty of things. If you want to - with or without socks, it certainly won't get any worse, only better. Another alternative to birkenshtok is men's pool slippers, such as Nike or Adidas. We will not remind you about a pedicure!
Photo: Getty Images / Fotobank (3), Sipa Press / Fotodom (1)