RESEARCH.
To continue my project I started doing research on various postures students at the Rietveld Academy take during making, creating, building their work. I have made pictures of how people behave in their clothing, the way their clothes work with the body while working and noted that the students don’t dress according to the task they are working on, like for example people working at building sites do. These students just wear what they like to wear!
So is it more image than comfort and protection what they are looking for?
Although the clothes do not seem to really get into their way whilst working, I was especially intrigued by their shoes.
I noted a difference between comfortable and less comfortable shoes for working and I also noted that shoes sometimes are used as some kind of tools. The shoes that attracted my interest the most were the shoes looking far from comfortable.
The black platform shoes are less flexible to the way we move our body. The height of the sole seems to limit adjustment to movement. The platform shoes do seem to be used as “tools” much more than flat, flexible shoes. These white sneakers below look much more comfortable, because of their flexibility. They adjust more to the foot in different postures.
On the first movie can be seen how difficult it is wearing platform shoes going down the stairs. Why would someone wear these shoes I wondered…? As the boy wearing them explains in the second movie it was the design that triggered him buying them. “It was an online buy so I haven’t fitted them. And by wearing I noticed the difficulty walking on them and how heavy they actually are. They are absolutely not comfortable” he remarks. So it looks platform shoes are anything but comfortable. How can it be that these uncomfortable shoes are so popular at the Rietveld Academy.