Like most people in the arts, my default dress is black, so it is no
wonder that my favorite sneaks are all-black Prada and Louis Vuitton
pairs. Now there's an even classier alternative: Nike has teamed up
with fabric design company Maharam to create a pure abstraction of the
sneaker: The Horsehair Collection. These three different black-on-black
versions of the basic Air Force Nike 1s (which came out twenty years
ago), are covered with hairs clipped from horses' tails (which then grow
back). They're like a minimalist dream of footwear. Their density and
sensuality take them out of the realm of the smelly sneaker constructed
out of some mysterious synthetic material while maintaining the look of
the leap that made the Air Force legendary. 
CEO Michael Maharam has previously collaborated with designer Hella Jongerius on a
Nike shoe, and he says he hopes to continue to put the firms' looms to
work on Nike's designs, not only for footwear, but also for clothing.
Camel, cashmere, silk, cotton and velvet are all destined to find their
way under -or rather over-foot. The idea is to bring sensuality to the
sneaker, and dress up the sports shoe for running through airports and
swishing through restaurants, rather than basketball courts. Maharam
calls it "restrained luxury." At $250 a pair (at selected Nike stores),
these shoes do fit into boardrooms better than locker rooms. 
Critic, curator and museum director Aaron Betsky curated the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2008, ran Rotterdam's Netherlands Architecture Institute from 2001-2006 and these days, helms the Cincinnati Art Museum. See his previous blogs HERE and check back on Thursday for his next post.
