{"id":234670,"date":"2019-09-26T10:42:45","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T05:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/?p=234670"},"modified":"2019-09-26T10:42:45","modified_gmt":"2019-09-26T05:42:45","slug":"these-hawa-sandals-by-a-pakistani-designer-are-the-epitome-of-cool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/these-hawa-sandals-by-a-pakistani-designer-are-the-epitome-of-cool\/","title":{"rendered":"These “Hawa Sandals” By a Pakistani Designer Are The Epitome of Cool!"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Pakistani-American designer Saks Afridi got together with famous shoe brand Markhor<\/em><\/strong> to create the ‘Hawa Sandal<\/em>‘. This rendition of the Peshawari chappal has a Sci-fi religious back story.<\/p>\n

Both Christian Louboutin and Paul Smith\u00a0 have attempted (and failed) with their renditions of the footwear indigenous to Pakistan\u2019s northwestern regions. Where these western brands failed, designer Saks Afridi hasn’t. He has created a winged version of the traditional Pakistani Peshawari chappal.<\/p>\n

Red Bull doesn’t give you wings but these shoes certainly do! Lets take a look at this thing:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B2Ry1QQl4GH\/<\/p>\n

The footwear is part of Saks Afridi’s ‘Space Mosque<\/em>‘ collection that has a ‘Sci-fi Sufism<\/em>‘ 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.<\/p>\n

Here’s what Saks says about his creation:<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir design is no different. The chappal is classic, the wings are futuristic. Yet, there\u2019s references of the past in them, going back to greek mythology. I guess that makes it retro-futurist.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B2T88sFFrip\/<\/p>\n

That’s a new theme, so why did Afridi take this up? Spiritual reflection. The Space Mosque<\/em> collection has a whole back story.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B2WXcQIFu_2\/<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B2ZKlJtFwEZ\/<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B2eLRdJlafV\/<\/p>\n

\n

ALSO READ<\/p>\n

Famous Italian Brand “Makes” Peshawari Chappals and No One is Amused!<\/a><\/p>\n

Of Hawa Chappals and Space Mosques<\/h3>\n

Saks says that his \u201cSpace Mosque<\/em>” narrative about making people reflect why we pray. Do we do it out of a spiritual need or out of greed?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B2g3QehFp2S\/<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B2jbdZNnKkO\/<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B2o_fp1FDWM\/<\/p>\n

The story of the Hawa Sandal<\/em> is only one of the stories in the Space Mosque<\/em> narrative. It almost seems to be a story he is very familiar with.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

About Saks Afridi<\/h3>\n

Saks Afridi, the creator of the Hawa Sandal<\/em>, was born right here in Pakistan. He hails from Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B2bexnjlV7J\/<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\n

ALSO READ<\/p>\n

This Pakistani is Empowering Women with Her Art Worldwide<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

When he started his Space Mosque<\/em> collection, the first look for his now-popular Hawa Sandal<\/em>, was revealed as a sculpture on his Instagram page in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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 \u2026 I couldn\u2019t have asked for a more collaborative and creative partner.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sculpture of the chappals were a huge success so we decided to work together to make a wearable version of the footwear.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Most big brands do work with craftsmen from countries like Pakistani, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, etc.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B226h2Bl-Bn\/<\/p>\n

As for what he’s doing right now, Afridi is exhibiting some work from the Space Mosque<\/em> series at the Ford Foundation in New York City as a part of the group show called \u2018Utopian Imagination<\/em>\u2019 on display until December 7th.<\/p>\n

via Arab News<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0 have attempted (and failed) with their renditions of the footwear indigenous to Pakistan\u2019s northwestern regions. Where these western brands failed, designer Saks Afridi hasn’t. He […] More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":234693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1298,1612,2199],"tags":[],"adace-sponsor":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-234670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"category-fashion","9":"category-featured"},"wps_subtitle":"We want these!","img_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/markhor-hawa-sandals-364x205.jpg",364,205,true],"medium":["https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/markhor-hawa-sandals-758x426.jpg",758,426,true],"full":["https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/markhor-hawa-sandals.jpg",1000,562,false]},"author_name":"Ummara Sheraz","categories_name":["Culture","Fashion & Beauty","Featured"],"title_text":"These \u201cHawa Sandals\u201d By a Pakistani Designer Are The Epitome of Cool!","related_stories":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts?filter&per_page=4&categories=1298,1612,2199&exclude=234670","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234670"},{"taxonomy":"adace-sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/adace-sponsor?post=234670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}