A Pakistani-American designer Saks Afridi got together with famous shoe brand Markhor to create the ‘Hawa Sandal‘. This rendition of the Peshawari chappal has a Sci-fi religious back story.
Both Christian Louboutin and Paul Smith have attempted (and failed) with their renditions of the footwear indigenous to Pakistan’s northwestern regions. Where these western brands failed, designer Saks Afridi hasn’t. He has created a winged version of the traditional Pakistani Peshawari chappal.
Red Bull doesn’t give you wings but these shoes certainly do! Lets take a look at this thing:
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The footwear is part of Saks Afridi’s ‘Space Mosque‘ collection that has a ‘Sci-fi Sufism‘ theme. As part of their marketing, we have shots of models posing in the Hawa Sandal, hovering or flying over cities and landscapes like some Greek demigods.
Here’s what Saks says about his creation:
“Their design is no different. The chappal is classic, the wings are futuristic. Yet, there’s references of the past in them, going back to greek mythology. I guess that makes it retro-futurist.”
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That’s a new theme, so why did Afridi take this up? Spiritual reflection. The Space Mosque collection has a whole back story.
“The themes of my work exist in a realm I call Sci-fi Sufism, the Hawa Sandal sculpture was created around a para-fictional narrative in which, for a brief time, a mysterious spacecraft resembling a hovering mosque appeared and every human on Earth was granted one answered prayer every 24 hours.”
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Of Hawa Chappals and Space Mosques
Saks says that his “Space Mosque” narrative about making people reflect why we pray. Do we do it out of a spiritual need or out of greed?
“The narrative explores greed and morality at war when prayer becomes the de facto global currency. The work asks us to reflect on what it is we pray for and to what end,”
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The story of the Hawa Sandal is only one of the stories in the Space Mosque narrative. It almost seems to be a story he is very familiar with.
“It is (the story) of a boy in Peshawar whose parents had separated, … He desperately prayed for a way to visit his father in Kohat. The next day, his prayer was answered and his sandals had grown wings. He called them his Hawa Sandals.”
About Saks Afridi
Saks Afridi, the creator of the Hawa Sandal, was born right here in Pakistan. He hails from Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar.
Since his father worked for the national airline, Pakistan International Airlines, Afridi spent most of his life living all over Pakistan and different parts of the world.
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Since 2013, he has been working as an artist and now has a career over two-decades-long in design and advertising. His preferred creative tool of choice is sculpture.
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When he started his Space Mosque collection, the first look for his now-popular Hawa Sandal, was revealed as a sculpture on his Instagram page in May.
“I wanted to somehow incorporate this story with a sculpture as part of the SpaceMosque exhibit which happened here in NYC earlier this year. I had recently been introduced to Markhor chappals through a friend … I couldn’t have asked for a more collaborative and creative partner.”
It was the success of this sculpture that got the owners of Markhor to work with Saks Afridi. The brand Markhor was created to highlight the efforts of craftsman from Pakistan who are usually swept under the rug by Western brands.
“The sculpture of the chappals were a huge success so we decided to work together to make a wearable version of the footwear.”
Most big brands do work with craftsmen from countries like Pakistani, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, etc.
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As for what he’s doing right now, Afridi is exhibiting some work from the Space Mosque series at the Ford Foundation in New York City as a part of the group show called ‘Utopian Imagination’ on display until December 7th.
via Arab News
designers ki cheezen sirf TV or ramp tk hi achi lagti hain, real life may wo sab useless hoti hain but yea to net pr bhi achi nai lag rahi, use krna to dour ki bat 😀