by Barbara Paganoni
The Reinventando el Calzado footwear exposition took place at FAD (Fomento Artes Decorativas) in Barcelona, Spain on March 15, 2007. FAD, an independent, non-profit cultural institution, is made up of more than 1,500 professionals working in design, architecture and other creative fields. The goal of the institution is to promote these disciplines within Spain’s cultural and economic arenas.
Reinventando el Calzado is geared to give a new perspective on the Spanish shoe market, focusing on how the creative element of Spanish footwear is what sets Spain apart in the global market. Thirty famous Spanish shoe firms and 30 well-known Spanish designers collaborated their efforts and created different pieces of art in several artistic sectors including architecture, textiles, design, jewellery, and graphic design.
Very little is known about the Spanish shoe market as it has been traditionally overlooked on an international scale. On the one hand, the market is closely linked to the economy of specific geographic areas in Spain. However, many of these Spanish shoe firms and designers have begun to position themselves in the global market by absorbing international design into their market strategies in order to get their creations in the most prestigious window shops of the world and to cover the highest market segments.
The exposition demonstrated the multiple possibilities that can result in a collaboration between two different worlds. The vast knowledge and experience as well as brand prestige from Spanish shoe firms was combined with the imagination, lenience of vision, and creativity of designers to create a wonderfully creative exhibit. The designers’ inspiration was derived from architecture, everyday life, the dichotomy between men and women, and the future. Each shoe was created without the bottom line in mind, while the designs were still respectful of the brands’ unique characteristics.
One popular design was the Scar Pattern Shoe, which originated from the collaboration between Martí Guixé (Industrial and Interior Designer) and the brand Magnanni, a classic men’s shoe with urban elements and an ethnic origin. In this case, the inspiration came from the scars that some Spanish tribes make on their bodies. Theses scars are a sign of belonging to a clan, which are now modernized in contemporary society in the form of tattoos.
Architect Juli Capella, together with the Lotusse brand, joined to create four different pairs of shoes in honour of four very significant moments of architecture in the 1900s. These four moments are parallel with four important steps in the brand’s history. Modernism coincides with the birth of the brand, functionalism is comparable to consolidation, development is in line with the organism of the 50s and 60s, and the refurbishment corresponds to present innovation.
The creative group “El último grito” working with the brand Pablosky created six different pairs of shoes. One interesting piece utilized a boot, where the group eliminated piece after piece of material until it was cut down to a pair of sandals. Every single shoe corresponded to a specific moment of the “eliminating material process,” the principal motivation behind their creativity.
Reinventando el calzado took place from March 15 until March 30, 2007.
