German-born shoe designer Burak Uyan (below) grew up with an architect
father and Helmut Lang as his hero. As such, his design philosophy—“I
just want to create beautiful, wearable art”—is less cliché than
destiny. Taking color cues from the work of artist Gerhard Richter and
architectural lines from Tadao Ando and Oscar Niemeyer, Paris-based
Uyan’s second collection of exquisitely crafted, exotically fabricated
creations (featuring both karung snake and llamaskin) are like
sculptures for the feet. But the Givenchy veteran swears he also has a
practical side, insisting, “I try to achieve the highest comfort
possible” (net-a-porter.com).
September 2011