Killer Shoes

March 28, 2013

A sufficiently outrageous shoe exhibition, featuring eccentric specimens like ice-cream-topped go-go boots, platform heels that look like evil anime characters, and pink-poodle sneakers, bowed in Germany today. Titled Starker Auftritt: Experimentelles Schuh Design(Strong Step: Experimental Shoe Design), the show, which is set in Leipzig’s Grassi Museum, brings together over 150 of the world’s most bizarre kicks, many of which are one-offs. Compared to the wares made of pins, straw, and cutlery, the swirling, sole-less Mojito sandals by architect-turned-designer Julian Hakes seem relatively normal, and even comfortable. However, we suspect that Barbara Zucchi’s vampire-slaying shoes—complete with garlic cloves and a pointed wooden-stake heel—are less wearable, no matter how aesthetically amusing they may be.

Starker Auftritt: Experimentelles Schuh Design will run through September 29 at theGrassi Museum, Johannisplatz 5-11, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; +49 341 9731900.

—Katharine K. Zarrella

Photos: Joern Haufe/Stringer via Getty Images

tags: Barbara Zucchi, Grassi Museum, Julian Hakes