Studio Swine has made fashionable furniture out of tin cans and home goods out of human hair, but the inspiration for its latest project came from the stars, or more precisely, Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
While the tech world was enamored by NASA's Philae Lander, Studio Swine's principles, Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves, were captivated by the comet's craggy surface, and they used this historic technical achievement as the jumping off point for the creation of a pair of high tech high heels.
With sponsorship from Microsoft, the pair delved into the archives of the Natural History Museum in London and examined iron and nickel meteorites that fell to Earth after colliding with Mars. Using a 3-D scanner, they sampled the topology of these meteorites and combined various specimens in CAD software. Aluminum foam was produced by blasting air into the molten metal. A CNC mill cut out an ergonomic space for a model's foot which was lined with supple leather. The result is a craggy, yet comfortable, set of shoes.
"One of the our favorite things about design is that it can synthesis very different things, such as meteorites and fashion," says Murakami. "In the morning we were handling lumps of metal from outer space and in the afternoon we were handling Italian leather at the shoe makers."
The Meteorite Shoes are set of pockmarked pumps that appear to be made out of metallic pumice, but according to Murakami, they feel nearly weightless. Despite their bulk, each shoe is approximately 90% air, weighs just over a pound, and is light enough to float on water. Studio Swine's efforts are one small step for models, one giant leap for fashion.
