HIGH HEELS - A FEAT OF ENGINEERING AND DESIGN

High Heeled Shoes:  Thought to have been invented in response to the problem of horse riders feet slipping forward in the stirrups when wearing flat shoes.

 My personal relationship with high heeled shoes is probably a lot like yours.  On one hand I love that they make me taller, Braxton (like most all men) thinks they are sexy, the do make ones bum look better and legs look longer....buuuut, they are are so friggen uncomfortable, they make me walk slower and feel slightly off balance.  
Have I ever mentioned that I'm just a smidge under 5ft tall?  I should be living in high heels!  Sleeping in them!  Showering in them!  But for me, super high heels are definitely a special occasion shoe.

For clarification, let's define heel heights.

• A kitten heel (which is where I'm comfortable) is 1.5 inches.
• A low heel is between 1.5 and 2.5 inches.
• A  mid heel is 2.5 to 3.5 inches
• A high heel is over 3.5 inches 

 Christian Louboutin explains the engineering behind the high heel:
"The heel is engineering in itself.  This little thing that supports the human weight has to have a precise balance.  If the metal points which are inserted into the heel for balance are not exactly inside the center of gravity position, inside the gravity line, the weight would make you flip out behind, or the weight would make you break the heel and fall forwards."


I'm just going to trust Mr. Louboutin on this one...I think it's safe to say that with shoes, especially ones with high heels, it's advisable to get the best made shoe one can afford.  Not only do well made shoes last longer and look nicer, they are "engineered" to be more comfortable and therefore safer to wear.

 42% of women say they will wear a painful shoe if it is pretty enough.

 Podiatrists have longed warned against wearing shoes with extreme heels, due to...

• foot pain
• increase sprains and fractures
• hammertoes and bunions
• shorter stride
• knee-joint damage

 Some advantages of wearing high heels are...

• better posture
• they make one taller
• make ones legs appear longer
• make ones foot appear smaller
• they help you reach the really good cookies which are always on the top shelf at the grocery store.

 "  Not diamonds but heels are a girls best friend"  William Rossi

 "I don't know who invented high heels, but all men owe him alot"  Marilyn Monroe

 "Nothing has been invented yet that will do a better job than high heels at making a good pair of legs look great, or a great ones look fabulous"  Stuart Weitzman

 "You put on high heels and you change"  Monolo Blahnik

I swear these are actually shoes...designed by architect  Julian Hakes.  Just to show you how much engineering goes into the designing of shoes, Mr. Hakes said "for me it wasn't much different from designing a bridge."

This captures how I feel whenever I wear super high heels.

Have a beautiful day.
yancey

PHILIPPE STARCK - LEGEND OF MODERN DESIGN

Philippe Starck - interior designer, architect, industrial designer and genius self promoter.

 Phillippe Starck's creative life began under his aircraft designer father's desk, where he would sit for hours with pen, paper, scissors, and a wicked imagination.  By the mid 1960's he had begun his first business making inflatable objects.
Mr. Starck is probably the most prolific designer alive today, and certainly one of the most controversial.  I've just spent a good couple of hours reading various interviews PS has give over the years, where he comes across as....pissed off....brilliant...not at all comfortable with the english language...bored....confused... sexy...full of himself...and did I say brilliant?
I think the best way to go here is to show you a few of his designs (there are sooooo many), and a few quotes.  
If you are interested in learning more about Philippe Starck I recommend you view his TED talk...did I say brilliant?

Optical mouse for microsoft

Is it a planter?  Chair?  It's over 7ft. tall!

Super modern stackable chairs.

 "In perhaps 50 years, 60 years, we can finish completely this civilization and offer to our children the possibility to invent a new story, a new poetry, a new romanticism."

Yep, it's exactly what it looks like.  Cool design, but is there an ick factor here or what?

BaObab desk.

 "When I design, I don't consider the technical or commercial parameters so much as the desire for a dream that humans have attempted to project onto an object."

 "No one has to be a genius, but everyone has to participate."

Folding chair.

 "Love is an endangered species."

The most WTF item I could find.  Does anyone really need a "gun lamp" Mr. Starck?

High back chair.

 "We do not need to kill to survive."

My favorite PS design,  the iconic juicer...as featured in the MoMA and breakfast tables the world over.

The Louis Ghost Chair.

 "I am not in the mainstream of thinking, I do not follow trends, I live completely out of everything, I do not go to the cinema, I do not watch television, I do not read magazines, I do not go to cocktail parties."

He designs yachts...of course he does.

Steam/shower cabin.

 "I am a dreamer, a professional dreamer."

Philippe Starck for Fossil

Wheelbarrow chair.

Wireless speakers with docking stations for the ipod and iphone.

Seriously, check out that TED talk when you have the time.
Have a beautiful spring day!
yancey

RAYMOND LOEWY - FATHER OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Raymond Loewy 1893-1986

French born, handsome, brilliant and a snappy dresser.

 I love a really good self made story, don't you?...


Raymond Loewy came to America on board the S S France in 1919.  He was actually following his older brothers, Georges and Maximillian,  who had already made it to our shores, while Raymond was busy doing his patriotic duty in WW1.  Raymond boarded the ship wearing his french Captains uniform (imagine how dapper he must have looked?) with $40.00 dollars in his pocket and some big big dreams.


While on board, Monsieur Loewy, who was an obsessive sketcher, captured the attention of Sir Henry Armstrong, British consul in New York, who gave him a calling card to Conde Naste publishing in NYC. Still wearing his uniform, Loewy went to the CN offices and landed a job as a fashion illustrator for Vogue and Vanity Fair.


His fore into industrial design came in 1929, when London manufacturer Sigmund Gestetner asked if he could improve upon the look of his duplicating machine. He did, and there was no turning back.

1953 Studebaker designed by R.L.

 "It all must start with an inspired, spontaneous idea."

14 piece "plaza" coffee service designed for Rosenthal China.  Do you see how charming this is?  Reminds me of childrens book illustrations.

Loewy was the first industrial designer to land a Time Magazine cover.  Years later, Life Magazine named him "one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th Century".

He even designed the corner bakery.  Is that a witch in the window?

 "I sought excitement and, taking chances, I was all ready to fail in order to achieve something large."

Loewy proudly stands in front of one his many locomotive designs.  Man knew how to pose for a photograph!

He designed the interior and the logo for the exterior of Air Force One, at the request of his friend Jackie Kennedy.

Raymond Loewy's design for Greyhound bus.

R. L. re-designed the original contour bottle for coca-cola, eliminating the embossing, which was on only one side, and replacing it with vibrant white lettering, which was on both sides.

 "It's shape is aggressively female, a quality that in merchandise as in life, sometimes transcends functionalism."  Referring to the coke bottle.

Our man, Raymond Loewy, is the chap on the far right.

In 1940, George Washington Hill, president of American Tobacco Co, bet him $50,000 he could not improve the Lucky Strike cigarette package.  Loewy took the bet and proceeded to change the background from green to white, thus reducing printing costs, and placed the red lucky strike target on both sides of the package, increasing visibility and sales.  Don Draper couldn't have done it better!

In the 1970's he designed the USPO eagle logo.

Raymond was an accomplished commercial artist.  He used his artistic skills to design fabric, wall paper, even posters.

 "The adult public's taste is not necessarily ready to accept solutions to their requirements if the solution implies too vast a departure from what they have been conditioned into accepting as the norm." 
Thus began Loewy's famous principal, referred to as MAYA, or Most Advanced Yet Acceptable.

"Between two products equal in price, function and quality, the one with the most attractive exterior wins."


Thank you Raymond Loewy, you have certainly made modern life more lovely.
Have a beautiful day.
yancey