Sergio Rossi Goes Memphis.

I never use pictures that aren't my own...but this time it was an emergency. (Picture comes from the folks at Sergio Rossi).  

Sergio Rossi has gone Memphis.  And for once I'm not complaining.  For some of the younger folks let me explain a little.  It was an 80s design movement led by Ettore Sottsass. The inspiration came from 50s kitsch  mixed in with a futuristic pop art style. Seeing it for the first time as a relatively stupid 18 year old, it disturbed   me intensely by its ridiculous joie de vivre. I recalled 'oh yeah that movie, that Danny Devito and Bette Midler film, Ruthless People' and it seemed to make some sort of  seasick sense but only to convey how the nouveau riche have bad taste.  But now after 11 years it means something else to me.  It's a celebration of pure creativity, of coming together and doing something new, different, a development of design.  I finally understand what my 1st year Professors were talking about.  Design should not be shut up in that dark box to decay with the dust and mould, the same square, the same rectangle, oh no we can't produce a circle, God forbid we try something new, God forbid we come together to produce a new house of thought.  And that my fellow sacrificers is the difference between cultures.  In Italy one is allowed to ACTUALLY design.  In Italy you don't get laughed at for experimenting, trying, being creative, doing something DIFFERENT, damn just being fabulous here is a normality, one gets praised, called intelligent for being a designer or artist.

Creativity has nothing to do with money. You do it because it is a need, a release of a bubbling colourful energy deep inside the soul.  Some people create children and others create objects, wearable art, write books, create cakes.  For  goodness sake, people start things because it's normal to strike out, follow a dream.  Why aren't people doing their Oprah 'aha' moments?

Hmmmm ranty therapy is over, to the shoe.

Errrrrrr...This pump, is a symbol of a new wonderful expression of design art. Delicate and bold, strong and distinctive. Mixed textures, pattern and materials.  This baby already for me has caused such an internal design stir I don't think I need to say more.