A SHOE IS BORN - GUIDI EXHIBITION

Guidi’s shoe collection is among the most coveted in the world. Tracing their origin back to the 14th century guilds of tanners and master shoemakers of Tuscany, Guidi’s shoes are the product of wisdom, tradition, and proprietary processing techniques. The ultimate result is the perfect shoe: a relic of an age which predates the paradigm of mass production and will likely outlast it. The Guidi Exhibition - "a visual journey through the handcrafted stages in the production of 988 guidi shoes," will be on view through at various galleries, boutiques, and ateliers throughout the year. The next stop will be the boutique Chegini, Wien in Vienna from September 1 to October 1.

Totally Bananas: The Footwear Creations of Kobi Levi

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Kobi Levi's heels are "wearable sculptures" that verge on fetishistic with an ironic, seemingly dadaist, wit. If Roger Vivier, 20th century French fashion designer credited with revolutionizing the stiletto heel, is considered the "Fragonard of the shoe," than you might call Kobi Levi the the "R. Mutt of the shoe." R. Mutt is of course the name signed on Dada artist Marcel Duchamp's iconic and ridiculous 1917 ready-made sculpture entitled "the fountain" - which was simply a found urinal. Is it genius or asinine? Levi, like Duchamp, is certainly making a statement. Levi's pieces are "...humoristic with a unique point of view about footwear." Throughout the history of civilization, women's fashion has taken turns as bondage and liberation.  Levi's constructions might be both, or the handiwork work of a batty sculptor with a foot fetish.  From semi-blatant sexual innuendo to slingshots to banana peels, Levi's shoes are cartoonish, bombastic, and in their magical kitschyness there is a beautiful complex brilliance which makes them insanely cool. www.kobilevidesign.blogspot.com