Sebastian Errazuriz’s 12 shoes for 12 lovers

This harrowing and stunning exhibition made its debut at The Art Basel Show at Miami Beach and has since stormed the internet as one of the most beautiful and innovative shoe collections we’ve ever seen. Chilean-born and New York-based artist and designer, Sebastian Errazuriz, collaborated with prolific shoe brand, MELISSA, who have also produced collections with the likes of Vivienne Westwood and Karl Lagerfeld.

The collection, named 12 shoes for 12 lovers, is made up of a 3D-printed shoe dedicated to each one of his past lovers, and the shape of each shoe is based on how he remembers each woman, either by personality traits, nicknames or behaviours.

A brief and nostalgic description accompanies each piece, reminiscing about a particular event or something specific he remembers, for example: “Alice knew we would be together long before I ever did. She also knew we would eventually break up although I always wanted to believe otherwise. None of us knew it would be so much shorter. I loved her so much. Always will.”

“The idea was to try and review those past sexual and romantic relationships from a distance of time,” said Errazuriz. “To expose yourself to scrutiny and judgement and invite others to check their own romantic relationships with their beauties, flaws, failures and success.” It’s such a striking concept that’s so loaded with emotion and the reality of stumbling through love lives, that you forget the pieces are anything to do with fashion at all.

The dedications are as follows: Jetsetter Jessica, Honey Natasha, Cry Baby Alexandra, Gold Digger Alison, Ice Queen Sophie, GI Jane Barbara, Heart Breaker Laura, Hot Bitch Caroline, The Virgin Anna, The Boss Rachel, The Ghost Valentina and The Rock Alice. Each of their stories is so relevant to the lives of so many that it presents an element of acceptance in terms of heart-break and love-loss. The fact that so many feelings could be so perfectly represented in a shoe, in itself a key symbol of female stereotypes, is so wonderful that we at The Upcoming want everyone in the world to see this collection.

Unfortunately, these beauties are not available for purchase and stand strong as mere art forms, but we hope that one day this sort of technological genius will be applied to shoes that we can strut down the high street in. The question we are all asking ourselves is, if we were to be emulated by a shoe masterpiece, how would we look?

Elizabeth Finney

To find out more about Errazuriz’s work, visit his website Meet Sebastian.