Winner 2022 / Special Awards / ARTISTIC FOOTWEAR

Magritte’s Stone

 

 

• Company
  Misawa Shoe Design Inc.
• Lead Designer
  Noriyuki Misawa
• Prize
  Winner in ARTISTIC FOOTWEAR, Overall winner in SPECIAL AWARDS
• Expertise
  Brand

"Magritte's Stone" is a surrealistic sandal that floats in the air, a wearable work of art based on Rene Magritte’s "metaphysical painting" and Isamu Noguchi’s sculpture abstracts. The sole, with an intricate cross-section of rugged texture, contains silver foil leather ala Noguchi. Its shape distributes the anatomical plantar pressure of walking. It naturally produces a force that pulls downward, like the rippling sea at the bottom of Magritte's " The Castle of the Pyrenees," and accentuates the floating essence of the shoe as a whole. 

Bio
Misawa trained as a shoemaker in Tokyo and in Vienna, Austria, for 10 years. In Vienna, he spent his free time visiting artists’ ateliers and art museums, where he was absorbed by the creative artistry. This experience inspired his career as an artist. Returning to Japan, he continued to learn under some Japanese artists and craftsmen for 4 years to extend his range of expression. It has been 20 years since he has engaged in shoemaking. He will keep pursuing the new value of “shoe art.”

Other prizes
2010 Germany, International Efficiency Contest of Shoemakers "Gold medal" and "Honor prize" 2015 The 33rd Japan leather crafts exhibition "Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Award" 2021 GLOBAL FOOTWEAR AWARDS "BEST OVERALL WINNER" 2022 GLOBAL FOOTWEAR AWARDS "BEST OVERALL WINNER"

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