Update: After hitting Milan, United Nude and 3D Systems are launching the Re-Inventing Shoes exhibit, featuring the architects designs, for New York Design Week. Starting Friday, the futuristic looks will debut at the brands flagship in Soho, at 25 Bond Street. Can’t make it this week? Don’t fret, the shoes will be on display until June 3.
United Nude is not known for subtle shoe styles. To advance its cutting-edge 3D-printing projects, the brand collaborated with five architects for new, limited-edition looks. The shoes, which were crafted using 3D Systems, are on display at Salone del Mobile in Milan this week.
To test the limits of its 3D technology, the brand printed ladies’ high-heel looks that are sculptural, bold and wild — like something straight out of Lady Gaga’s closet. The production materials are hard nylon and rubber, with only 50 pairs max of each style available.
The architects involved in the collaboration include:
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Ben Van Berkel / Unstudio for United Nude
“The vertical ribbons and hoof-like shape of the shoe elongate the legs and create an almost animal-like extension,” said brand co-founder and Creative Director Rem D. Koolhaas.
Zaha Hadid for United Nude
“The sculptural sensibility and experimentation of Hadid’s architectural language and United Nude’s expertise in manufacturing the most innovative designs has embodied the shoe with the essence of fire — delicate and ephemeral, yet compelling and dynamic,” said Koolhaas.
Ross Lovegrove for United Nude
“We have entered a second Renaissance that is like a spaceship moving away from an analog Earth into a nebula of extraordinary abstract beauty that will lift our psyche to new limits of speculation and biomimetic understanding … closer, in fact, to our true instinctive view of a nonlinear world,” said Lovegrove.
“So, mindful of this moment of divergence, I have sought to ground my concept on core female anatomical beauty, first scanning the foot to retain the sophisticated surfaces that hard and soft physiognomy can naturally provide,” said Lovegrove.
Fernando Romero for United Nude
“At the intersection of the geometry of nature, the human body, and the cosmos, the design of this shoe finds its beginning in the geometries calculated through mystifying yet rational natural numeric sequences. It is these radial organic movements that inspire the shoe — grounded in a moment of literal connection between the human body, the earth we live on, and the universe of which we are part,” said Koolhaas.
Michael Young for United Nude
“Working on this project has allowed the office a unique opportunity to explore and expand within a rare dimension,” said Koolhaas.
Click through the gallery for looks that are sure to shock you.
Would you wear any of these styles? Tell us @Footwearnews.
