Shoe Fleur
We talk with photographer Michel Tcherevkoff about his collection of imagined floral shoes, Shoe Fleur.
Michel Tcherevkoff has imagined a line of shoes that is, quite possibly, perfect. His shoes will never scuff, fade, or wilt; they don't take up any space in the closet; and they will fit anyone. It's true that they cannot actually be worn, but the New York City-based photographer has convinced me that's a trifling technichality.
His Shoe Fleurs are fashioned with flowers, leaves, and grasses that he's culled from friends' gardens, local NYC markets, and exotic locations. In his studio, Tcherevkoff photographs the dissected plants, then weaves a heel and strap on his computer—all the while flirting with each flower, he tells me, to elicit its shoe design. And Tcherevkoff loves a good fantasy, and a good pun: Each design is accompanied by a line of provocative fantasy that gives the flower, and its foot (yours!) a sensational story.
Tcherevkoff's book, Shoe Fleur, includes an introduction by Diane von Furstenberg, and a preface by Ferruccio Ferragamo. He is designing two other collections of similar attire: one of lingerie, called Passion Flower, and one of hats, Chapeau de Fleur. Tcherevkoff's other photography includes advertising campaigns for clients including L'Oreal, Prescriptives, and Coca-Cola.
We've put together a selection of images from Shoe Fleur, along with Tcherevkoff's own descriptions of each shoe and the plants it is made from.
Left: Photographer Michel Tchervkoff
Shoe design: Chiquita
Description: A shoe so sweet it doubles as a late-night dessert... or breakfast in bed.
Plant name: Banana flower (Musa acuminata)
Michel says: "This was a surprise to me. I didn’t know that at the end of the banana cluster, there was a beautiful flower. Flower, Banana, Chiquita—it all worked for me!"
All designs are included in Shoe Fleur, by photographer Michel Tcherevkoff.
Shoe design: Colette
Description: The sole of love: deceptively fragile, it can last forever.
Plant name: Orchid
Michel says: "This is for my granddaughter, Coco—all happy and all pink, for a fashionista-in-the-making who loves orchids!"
All designs are included in Shoe Fleur, by photographer Michel Tcherevkoff.
Shoe design: Divine
Description: Two lips meeting in Paris.
Plant name: Parrot tulip
Michel says: "This began with a Parrot Tulip. Two lips, Paris, love."
All designs are included in Shoe Fleur, by photographer Michel Tcherevkoff.
Shoe design: Fatal Attraction
Description: These irresistible long-stemmed beauties will make you bleed. But they’re worth it.
Plant name: Rose (Musa acuminata)
Michel says: "When I was in Paris, the editor of Stiletto Magazine asked me to create a shoe for the 100th Anniversary of the International Rose Competition, which is held in the Bagatelle Gardens. I just added a little Parisian attitude: the thorns!"
All designs are included in Shoe Fleur, by photographer Michel Tcherevkoff.
Shoe design: Feet To Be Tied
Description: A loose lariat of buds fasten dancing shoes that are intended to fall off.
Plant name: Cockscomb (Celosia cristata)
Michel says: "Did the name or the laces come first? It’s in the attitude."
All designs are included in Shoe Fleur, by photographer Michel Tcherevkoff.
Shoe design: Feng Shoe
Description: She thought it was love that threw her off balance until she took off her platforms.
Plant name: Hosta leaf
Michel says: "I take the flowers to my studio, then I take them apart. Sometimes the pistil looks fabulous, sometimes the leaves more than the petal."
All designs are included in Shoe Fleur, by photographer Michel Tcherevkoff.
Shoe design: Hell Sinki
Description: A rabble rouser in the land of the midnight sun.
Plant name: Peruvian Lily (Alstroemeria)
Michel says: "When I am looking at the flowers, I flirt with them. They flirt back with me. This is how the design develops."
All designs are included in Shoe Fleur, by photographer Michel Tcherevkoff.
Shoe design: Lily White
Description: Just the lift she’ll need to look directly into his eyes when they kiss.
Plant name: Calla Lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica)
Michel says: "I get many of my flowers at the Wholesale Flower Market on West 28th Street in New York. I go at 7am to get the freshest blossoms. Often I don't know what I am looking for until I see it."
All designs are included in Shoe Fleur, by photographer Michel Tcherevkoff.
Shoe design: Marie Antoinette
Description: A delicate slipper for the young queen who lost her head over too much cake.
Plant name: Coleus
Michel says: "When I start a new design I have no idea what direction I am going with it until I look, touch, feel and even smell a flower. Then, the design slowly emerges from this study."
All designs are included in Shoe Fleur, by photographer Michel Tcherevkoff.
Shoe design: Miss Tress
Description: The sole of discretion, she is “the other woman,” the free spirit caged, in love with a two-timing heel.
Plant name:Amaranth
Michel says: "The intellectual process is loose. I turn the flower upside down and look for the element of a shoe: a possible heel, front, the back of a shoe."
All designs are included in Shoe Fleur, by photographer Michel Tcherevkoff.
Shoe design: Paradise Found
Description: She was tropical exotica, standing just a bit taller and a few steps away from the flock.
Plant name: Bird of paradise (Strelitzia reginae)
Michel says: "As I work, I think about names: who would wear the shoe, what she would look like. I designed a shoe called "Greta Gazebo," after seeing a movie on a particular avenue in Paris that reminded me of the actress."
All designs are included in Shoe Fleur, by photographer Michel Tcherevkoff.
Shoe design: Venetian Ball
Description: She thought the feathered mask would conceal her identity, but the footwear gave her away.
Plant name: Begonia
Michel says: "Each design is composed of one species. If the plant I am working with is a flower, I might use the pistil, leaves, petals, and anything else. Then, I play with the shapes."
All designs are included in Shoe Fleur, by photographer Michel Tcherevkoff.
