The Most Ridiculous Shoes You Will Ever See

https://vimeo.com/lyallcoburn/scarybeautiful At first look, these dangerously tall, “backward” leather heels appear completely inane. In order to wear them, one’s feet must be completely vertical while leaning her calves against the front of the shoe and bending her knees. Watching the model in the video teeter around like some kind of alien insect seems like a big joke. How could anyone seriously be expected to wear these? Well, they’re not.

The shoes—titled “Scary Beautiful”—were designed by artist Leanie van der Vyver, who teamed up with Dutch shoe designer René van den Berg. A recent graduate of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, “Scary Beautiful” were part of van der Vyver’s thesis, a commentary on today’s impossible beauty standards. Speaking to Shine, she said:

After working in fashion for seven years, and therefore being well aware of the manipulation images in fashion suffer for a perfect result, I still compare myself to them and other current beauty ideals. My frustration with my own inability to overcome these feelings of inadequacy was what brought ‘Scary Beautiful’ into fruition. [The shoes] challenge current beauty ideals by inflicting an unexpected new beauty standard.

The’re definitely reminiscent of McQueen’s 10-inch Armadillo heels that Lady Gaga tried walking around in for the “Bad Romance” video. In fact, she’s the only person we could ever even imagine wearing the “Scary Beautiful” shoes. And she’s one step ahead of us. Upon request, van der Vyver sent the heels to Studio Formichetti for a Gaga music video shoot, but “could not get confirmation whether she actually used them.”