Chrissie Morris Fall 2010

Chrissie Morris Fall 2010

 

 

Milan-based shoe designer Chrissie Morris sells out of Saks in New York and Dover Street Market in London, and she’s gotten there without ever commissioning a single piece of advertising. That is, until now. Today, Morris joins the ranks of Gareth Pugh and Alexander Wang, turning to the moving image for her online sales pitch.

She is officially releasing a piece of video art promotion, by Paris-based photographer and video artist Kira Lillie. In a sci-fi landscapes, Morris introduces the wider world to her finer goods.

Morris, a Brit by birth, initially studied knitwear. Upon moving to Italy, she was charmed by the local leather tradition and turned to shoes. In 2007, she launched her label, one that emphasized exotic skins like “skin ray” (a web of bones that resembles glass) and python embellished with semi-precious stones. Of course, the shoes are made in Italy by “experienced old-school Italian craftspeople,” she says. The stilettos’ shapes borrow from Art Deco and the improbable arches of Gothic architecture.

The video takes on Morris’s lush world, juxtaposing two radically opposed experiences of femininity: running around amidst a Metropolis-like landscape, and in a spiritual nocturnal scene. “This is a very literal exploration of ‘the inside’ and ‘the outside,’ and a reflection of the complexities of femininity” said Lillie, who filmed the video in two days in the Parisian suburb of Ivry.

“With video we were able to show movement–particularly important when one thinks about shoes,” said Morris. The designer has two young sons, and adds, “This was the first time I have collaborated with anyone in this way, and there was a sense of sending your kid off to school by himself for the first time.”