A quick glance at Beate Karlsson's Instagram bio tells you more or less what she's about: "Making wearable butts and stuff." Indeed, thanks to her masterful use of silicone, the Pyer Moss designer creates wearable replicas of Kim Kardashian's famous derriere.
Her wacky, surreal aesthetic also translates to footwear, where her monstrous claw shoes and fat baby sliders have helped the avant-garde designer amass a cult following online.
Karlsson's latest footwear offering, however, might be her most chaotic design yet: a pair of red high-heeled boots with four giant toes that resemble the inside of human flesh, giving an entirely new meaning to "bloody shoes." The gory heels are part of her new collection for AVAVAV Firenze, the Scandinavian designed fashion brand produced in Italy.
"Avavav gave me the opportunity of creating a collection with creative freedom and a more sustainable production chain," Karlsson tells PAPER. "I took this opportunity and spiced it up with one of my favorite products: shoes. The four-fingered toe shoe (bloody feet) felt like a great, wearable, extension of my not so wearable Claw shoes that weigh about 4.5 pounds."
The shoes are part of a collection that features a wider assortment of pieces, including crazy wide jeans and statement hoodies with text reading "We Only Made 21 of These." Because the items weren't mass-produced, the bloody feet are already sold out. But the brand notes that if you put yourself on the waitlist, they can try to restock it.
"My pieces have long been a product of trying to liberate myself from known shapes," she adds of her design approach. "I've felt that approaching otherness in the contemporary fashion landscape has been an effective vehicle to change some of the most pressing errors of the industry, while still being just about fruition of innovation."
Photo courtesy of AVAVAV