Promotional image of the popular red boots on the MSCHF website.
thread stitches
The controversial artistic collective MSCHF shows how easily people are influenced
The ‘Big Red Boots’ (big red boots) are on everyone’s lips and on the feet of a few. Despite what it might seem, this is not the latest launch from a fashion firm, but rather the most recent action by the New York artistic collective MSCHF. the consonants of ‘mischief’ (mischief). A social experiment on how people are easily influenced to make senseless decisions, turning an uncomfortable pair of 330-euro boots into an ephemeral whim.
The rubber boots project, also known as ‘Astro boots’, in reference to the comic book character Astro Boy, who wears identical ones, has been a success. They went viral at New York Fashion Week, before they were put up for sale. Now they are sold out, although they keep a good handful of expectant people on the waiting list after filling out a form. At any time they can receive an email saying that they are back in stock and, once the payment is made, they will receive their order in eight weeks. A period that has not been liked and has pushed some of the ‘lucky ones’ to reject them or put them up for sale on second-hand platforms before having them in their possession because, as some of them affirm on the MSCHF Instagram account, when receive them will already be out of date. Meanwhile, they put them up for sale for prices around 2,000 euros.
Without saying the name, from the collective’s website they do not hide that the references come from different video game and cartoon characters, such as Boots, the name of the monkey that accompanies Dora the Explorer. «For a cool world in 3D. The caricature is an abstraction that frees us from the limitations of reality. If you kick someone with these boots, they’ll do Boing!”, reads the description of the footwear, which follows in the wake of the aesthetics of the unreal, like – they say – the impossible armadillo heels with which the genius Alexander McQueen surprised in 2010.
“Unreality achieves what cartoons have known for decades: abstract forms convey their central idea with an immediacy that a fully realized form cannot. Hundreds of characters, from the mouse –in reference to Mickey Mouse– to the plumber –by Mario Bros– have performed the same exercise: how to make a shoe using the fewest possible number of primitive geometries and, even so, be read instantly ?», they ask themselves from the MSCHF, who consider that this is how a symbol has been created.
«These shoe shapes are widespread in the public’s memory and they all serve the same purpose: to instantly convey the idea of ’boot’», because, as they say, «it is a cliché in shoe design that the shape of a shoe is not the shape of a foot. Actually, the big red boots are not shaped like a foot, but are extremely boot-like in shape.”
Destroy four Birkin to create sandals
Among his controversial acts is destroying four Birkin bags for 101,700 euros to create the most expensive and exclusive sandals in the world with their pieces of skin. The association produced what they called Birckinstock, aesthetically identical to the popular Birckenstock.
It was not enough to have a healthy economy to acquire a pair. Those chosen had to send a letter of intent to purchase. Next, schedule a call to agree on the terms of the transaction. The cost of each pair of sandals ranged from 28,000 euros to 62,700 euros.
Shortly after, they released 666 pairs of sneakers imitating Nike Air Max 97s with drops of human blood for $1,018, referring to the verse Luke 10:18: The shoes sold out in minutes.
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