Sole Sister

The shoe, at its most basic level, is a piece of architecture—housing, shifting, and bearing weight. With this concept in mind, 30-year-old London designer Chau Har Lee called on the rounded, industrial creations of Luigi Colani and cutting-edge 3-D modeling techniques for her second full shoe collection. In fact, one of Har Lee’s eight pieces, an angular, acrylic shoe with a tapered heel, took her 28 hours to envision using computer software. Another creation repurposes the knifelike heel and adds a removable translucent sheath, so the entire pump disassembles into seven separate pieces. Har Lee’s sky-high forms have also made international waves—blurring the lines between shoes and architecture, they are the closest thing to Calatrava for the feet.