WINDE RIENSTRA
Unique Yet Surprisingly Wearable
Winde Rienstra is a fashion and accessories designer who is also heavily influenced by architecture, but this time we feel closer to the kind of architects that believe their concepts need to be realised into spaces that real people can live in.
Not that her work is inaccessible, more that she lives up to her claim to be
Not afraid to experiment with materials not traditionally used in fashion design
We’re not quite sure what to make of her words about her work. As poetry, inspiration and insight into her mind, we find her language at times beautiful. And we can certainly see the connection between the emotions of the word and image.
But in our view it’s at times borderline. If she didn’t carry off the designs with such flair, or execute the promise so well, we’d question whether this might be an example of an artist’s statement that’s more about the statement than the art. (If you’re not sure what we mean, you really must take a detour to artybollocks.com!) But we think she falls the right side of the line, and is an example of work where the visual appeal is enhanced by the written word that inspired it.
We were intrigued by Winde Rienstra’s latest work “Forgotten Path”, inspired by the “beauty of abandoned Russian dachas” (traditional summer homes for Russians with means). The shoes from this collection were deemed worthy of inclusion in the Virtual Shoe Museum, and we completely agree.
From her other shoe designs, we were most taken with “Wedge”, part of Winde’s “Reflections in Facets” collection from a few years back.
Despite the initial sense of extreme design, we quickly came to see Winde’s shoes as relatively wearable footwear covered with outer layers of imagination and creativity, but ultimately sitting on the side of fashion rather than art.
So our interpretation is that this footwear is about accessorising, at its best setting off her clothing designs rather than in isolation.
NEXT: KOBI LEVI - CREATING EXTRAORDINARY SHOES FROM SEEMINGLY ORDINARY OBJECTS