Thom Solo is an American footwear designer making avant-garde designs that are actually wearable. With a celebrity cult following, it's on the right track to be everywhere soon.
This month, the brand unveiled its latest creation, the Opera shoe, in black and silver, and it's inspired by the theatricality and escapism that's engrained in platform shoes, as well as female rockers through the decades. "Heels change the way we carry ourselves, but platforms take it to a whole other level," said designer Thom Solo. With a background in art and sculpture, Solo's design process for the Opera was a six-month long process, perfecting the arch and interior padding for comfort despite the shoe's intimidating appearance.
Before even graduating from art school, the designer made custom floral thigh high boots for Lady Gaga that were worn in an interlude during the Art Pop tour. And most recently, Richie Shazam wore the Opera shoes at the CFDA Awards, where she was a guest at the first ever AAPI Emerging Designers Table.
The brand also hopes to always to champion creative voices and the rule breakers in the LGBTQ+ community and other historically underrepresented groups. "With this campaign, we emphasized key ingredients of rebellion, futuristism, androgyny, the feminine growl, curation, and boundary breakers," the designer says. "Thom Solo is showcasing that now more than ever there's an explosion of creative ideas, experimentation, and relentless expression from independent designers and creatives who are determined now more than ever to have their work shine and spread joy, inspiration, unapologetic confidence, and much needed sense of community.”
Below, Thom Solo chatted with PAPER all about the launch of the Opera shoe and making shoes as a love letter to badass women.
Tell me about how you got started making shoes!
I always knew that ultimately, I would probably end up going to an art school. But before art school came on the horizon, my mom would have a work trip to New York City every month, and I would go with her. I would meet up with friends who knew spots, so at the age of 16 up until 21, I was "sneaking" into nightclubs spaces like The Beatrice Inn and Rough Club back in the day. Having these experiences meeting stylists and editors and somewhat celebrities, ultimately that's where my like love of this fantasy, nightlife, fashion really started.
Once I got to art school, I knew that I wanted to make my way back to that industry, but I wasn't quite sure what it was going to be until I was in Sculpture 101. I was flipping through Time, during the period of Alexander McQueen's [collection] "Plato's Atlantis" and the iconic Armadillo shoe. It was a black and white photo, so it was a standalone, and it was emotional and functional and sculptural. It hit me like a ton of bricks, I started figuring out how to continue my art studies at SMFA, and I found a great community of Armenian shoe craftsmen in Boston. So I would go to college, and when school was over, I'd rush to the cobbler shops and take as much information as I could gather and started attributing the two to create this new process. It was highly frowned upon in my school because it was still in that weird time where fashion was really over here, and art people were over here, and they felt really snobby about it. It caused a lot of turmoil at my college. My studio got vandalized like four different times. It was a crazy buildup.
Does that mean you approach shoe design as creating sculptures?
Absolutely. At the root, sculpture is where the designs come from. I'm really interested in the dichotomy of light and dark, danger and ethereal, and try to intertwine that within the designs, as well. In particular with the Opera platform, I love that it's this aspirational-looking silhouette. It's a little intimidating, but then you put the shoe on, and you feel that it doesn't have that intense pitch. It's got this sculptural platform, but it's got an orthopedic sole, so it feels like that is the perfect design to carry out the narrative and the relationship that is the DNA of Thom Solo.
And what is the DNA of Thom Solo?
European craftsmanship with the American rebellious spirit. It's something that also leads into the conversation of what I call the "feminine growl." That is the highest form of inspiration for me. The "feminine growl" is the expression, the way a woman carries herself. It could be as simple as a hand gesture to Miley [Cyrus] kicking the microphone down on stage at the end of her performance. It's that raw, femme, divine energy.
As an independent designer, it's been hard because there's such a shift in the way that media and shopping has taken a major hold on brands. It's great to have certain lanes within fashion, but I wish we could get back to the storytelling alongside with what we're trying to sell as opposed to just mass marketing a trend.
Is there a story you're trying to tell?
There's no defined storyboarded story. The way I sometimes describe it is like this piece of chiffon floating in the air — an essence and a being. Music also plays such a huge meditative part for me, and it I start to see this feminine character, and then the storyline starts to build in my head. It doesn't necessarily make 100 percent total sense, but then over time, the silhouette start to come to me. I get into that meditative state and start sketching on my iPad. By the time I've run my cycle, I've popped out 12 new silhouettes. It's like a blackout.
Who do you hope to see wearing your shoes?
I would love to see a moment with Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to Beyonce and Adele and working with Gaga again. A lot of those women have saved my life in some form from the way they have put themselves out into the world. Everything I do is an homage and love letter to women, including a sense of escapism and somewhat of a self-portrait through that feminine energy that I see in myself.
I'm still learning my own language of how to discuss the "feminine growl." I identify as Two Spirit, and people will see a white gay man. I'm aware of my privilege within this world that comes with that. But I really try to push and make clear in the conversation that, yes, there are some intense, sculptural, over-the-top, exaggerated silhouettes, but they're only building on the homage of how badass women are to me. It's up to the woman to decide if she wants to wear something like that. She could wear our two-inch heel or she could wear the seven-inch Lunar wedge heel. But it's just trying to build pieces of fashion armor to accentuate the epic-ness that women already are giving.
There's so many male designers having the conversation of sexuality through the male gaze, and I think it's incredible if a woman feels sexy wearing something. But for me, it doesn't come from a place of sex. It comes from a place of escapism, ethereal, the dark, the light, armor and strength.
Available now at thomsolo.com.
Creative direction: Thom Solo
Styling: Ayumi Perry
Production: Form creative
Hair: Brian Nunez
Makeup: Sara Pulling
Model: Allison Li
Lighting: Catchlight Design
Florals: Rafael Floral & Event Design
Assistance: Marie Bonugli
Related Articles Around the Web
