You may familiar with Lady Gaga’s 9 inch heel-less platform shoes.
Lady Gaga by Nick Knight for Vanity Fair
The designer of her shoes is Japanese artist, ‘Noritaka Tatehana‘.
Photo via Noritaka Tatehana site
The heel-less shoes was his graduation project from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2010 and the shoes soon attracted the attention of fashion industries overseas including Lady Gaga’s stylist.
Becoming Lady Gaga’s sole shoes-maker suddenly put him in the spotlight. Nowadays, his heel-less platform is loved by many celebrities such as Daphne Guinness.
His inspiration of the design came from ‘Oiran’ (Japanese courtesans), whose decadent fashion established a very unique mode in the 19th Century.
Oiran wore ‘wooden geta’ which is thirty centimeter-high platform shoes. NoritakaTatehana says that his heel-less shoes are a new version of the traditional Japanese platform shoes that crosses over the traditional and modern Japanese identities.
Photo via Tsubame-kankou
“Good shoes take people to good places. I feel Happy if I can create the best pair for my clients.”
Noritaka Tatehana sees shoes are a communication tool and his profession is to adorn people.
“I am a creator of “things”, but I would like to be someone who could share time and experience with the people I meet, not just a person who leaves behind his creations.”
“I create shoes out of communication with my clients. I will create as many number of shoes as the encounters I have.”
Are you interested in getting a pair of heel-less high platform? You can order it from here. The price ranges from $2,500 a pair to $4,000.
The exhibition of Noritake Tatehana has been running at 8/Art Gallery/Tomio Koyama Gallery in Shibuya Hikarie in Tokyo until January 12 so you had better hurry.
The style is not quite for me, but I had a Lady Gaga moment.
匠 TAKUMIST 