Think of the Smurfs. Or to Bibi Blocksberg. Or – like the members of a New York art collective – to the Japanese cartoon character Astro-Boy. What do they all have in common? Instead of real shoes, the drawn figures wear a mixture of socks and boots on their feet, simple in shape and rounded everywhere. Something that’s pretty typical of cartoons, but god knows you never expected it to make the leap into the real world of fashion.
To be fair, even the makers of the “Big Red Boots” probably wouldn’t have expected someone to wear their creation on real feet in real life. But it happens: Stars like Ciara, Diplo or Lil Wayne appeared publicly with massive, comic-like plastic boats. Responsible for this is MSCF, a group of artists from Brooklyn, which has so far attracted attention with provocative action art.
For example, the activists around founder Daniel Greenberg sold popsicles depicting the faces of very wealthy men – Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates
So MSCHF has a sense of humor – and business acumen. Both also apply to the “Big Red Boots”: The absurd footwear costs 350 US dollars (currently sold out). For boots that don’t look particularly comfortable, nor particularly expensive to make, a very confident price.
In principle, humor when it comes to fashion isn’t a bad thing: when cool indie girls ironically put on a “Barbie” t-shirt with baggy pants or skater boys put on a jacket over an XXL shirt, then that shows praiseworthy qualities such as Creativity and resistance to social standards, as well as the ability not to take oneself and one’s appearance dead seriously all the time.
In this respect, the red boots are also funny, of course. However, the question arises as to whether fashion can be funny if it a) flirts with artistic aspirations and b) costs a lot of money. We remember various excitement from the fashion house Balenciaga, which offered handbags in the garbage bag look for more than 1000 euros each. Where does the fun end – and does the cynicism begin?
In any case, it’s remarkable how a small group of rebellious New Yorkers are currently getting numerous stars to walk out the door in literal clown shoes. That has to say something about our society. The question is: what?
