For her graduation project at Central Saint Martins, Julia Hederus used inspiration from Legos in the menswear line she produced for London Fashion Week 2007. The clothes were block-shaped and glued together. She then approached K-Swiss to collaborate on a line of block fetish footwear, which debuted this fall. “Shoes are very different from clothes,” she says, “and architecture has always been a great inspiration to me in fashion. So designing trainers feels even more natural. I often imagine very complex and futuristic shapes.” The result of Julia’s fascination with blocks and architecture has resulted in sneakers that meld modernist hard edges with the soft soles of sneakers.There are three styles in the line. Cubes, a classic low-top K-Swiss with the twist of square leather tabs protruding from the shoe, is the most basic. Blocks takes the aesthetic further in a low-top with velcro closure blocks that can be added at the wearers discretion. The high-blocks are my favorite, a non-clunky, streamlined high-top with blocks velcro closure. The minimal tastefulness of the shoes is hard to resist, and their K-Swiss comfort makes it even harder. The Hederus line for K-Swiss retails for $130-$195 and is available at www.oki-ni.com.
