British Footwear Designer Kitty Shukman Reveals Their Inspiration for the YZY D ROSE
The unreleased pair comes from something more natural than you’d imagine.
YEEZY footwear is boundary-pushing and daring. Its silhouettes shoved the conceptual footwear door wide open, welcoming a totally new aesthetic for our feet. For example, few designs looked anything like the original adidas YEEZY 350 BOOST, while newer styles like the KNIT RNR, FOAM RNNR, and NSLTD BOOT rewrote the rulebook on divisive design. Now, the designer behind one of YEEZY’s most unique shoes — the Derrick Rose-cosigned YZY D ROSE — has unveiled the inspiration behind the pair.
Kitty Shuckman is the mastermind British footwear designer behind many much-loved shoes, notably the aforementioned and unreleased D ROSE basketball prototype. Speaking to The Face, the designer previously said their inspiration comes from “Barbara Hepworth sculptures. Then Neri Oxman’s work, folklore, eroded rocks, satellite pictures of planets and the moon, biological sketches of ocean creatures, people in the street in London. I love looking at people wearing bizarre footwear with weird sock combinations. Working [at] YEEZY, there are no creative limits.”
However, the D ROSE takes from an even more creative realm. Taking to Instagram, Shuckman explains how they were sitting in the woods with a sketchbook. They stumbled upon a fallen tree, something they describe as “creature-like.” It’s clear to see the inspiration within the shoe, as the foam sneaker is created using waves, etchings, cuts, undulations, and bulbous shapes.
Take a look at the un-released YZY D ROSE above, and find more of Shuckman’s work on their Instagram account.
Elsewhere, Salehe Bembury’s Crocs Pollex Slide in “Tashmoo” is releasing.
