The Latest Name In Shoes Belongs to Obi Cymatica

Obi Cymatica has been obsessed with fashion for as long as he can remember –– he spent much of his youth sketching one ensemble after another. But around his 18th birthday, it suddenly hit him: he spent far more time working out details of the footwear than the rest of the outfit, and shoes were always the most exuberant part of the finished sketch. It was at that point, as a Forest Hills high school student in Queens, that Cymatica made up his mind to become a shoe designer.

Obi Cymatica was born in Madagascar, to Nigerian parents, and spent most of his childhood in Nigeria. When he was 16, he moved with his family to New York. As a designer, he's self-taught, but extremely determined: barely out of his teens, he started his own label, established a relationship with a factory in Florence, and landed a retail account with the online designer shop, Saxa. Even now, at the slightly-less-tender age of 25, he still makes every decision about the design and manufacture of every pair of his boots and shoes. 

Cymatica's idols include Christian Louboutin, whose "attitude toward making shoes" he particularly admires, along with how Louboutin has managed to maintain the aura of an atelier-based shoemaker, while growing his business by leaps and bounds. But Cymatica's ne plus ultra is Manolo Blahnik. They met, once, and the young man found himself almost tongue-tied as he tried to express his admiration for his hero. "I said, Mr Blahnik, you don't understand –– it's because of you I'm a shoe designer. Because of you! I think he just smiled. But it's true."

As for what inspires him, Cymatica says he turns to music. "I put on music, and sit down to draw. It might be Eartha Kitt, or house music, Amy Winehouse or a movie soundtrack. I envision a woman in that musical environment, and start sketching. If it's romantic, maybe the shoes reveal a little more skin; if the music is strong, the shoes become stronger, too. I like strength. After all, shoes are armor for your feet."

Photographs by Noël Sutherland. Leg model (and muse): Faustina Rose. Produced and styled by Mark Grischke for Fashion As a 2nd Language.

Seeing Clearly Now–the New Chic of Transparency

Transparency is far more common in fashion than it is in, say, banking (or government), so it's no surprise that recent, 90s-influenced collections include plenty of references to that era's see-through clothes and accessories. Of course, plastic garments have been around since the 1920s (even earlier, counting celluloid collars and rubberized footwear), and made memorable appearances in the 1960s (Courrèges, Mary Quant, etc). But 90s transparency was only glancingly influenced by the Space Age–instead, designers in the last decade of the 20th century were far more obsessed with reclaiming iconic fashion tropes, deconstructing them and issuing new (and decidedly ironic) versions. At times, fashion seemed caught in a revolving door of historical references (70s bell bottoms one season, 50s frocks the next). It was also a period of extremes, with star power at each end of a long continuum: Karl Lagerfeld and his high-baroque extravaganzas chez Chanel versus Jil Sander's (or Helmut Lang's) cool displays of minimalism. (Not to mention the stealthy massing of forces at a Milanese operation formerly known for manufacturing nylon bags and backpacks with inexplicable insider appeal–la Casa di Miuccia Prada.)

But that's all fashion history. What's in store for Spring 2013? We spotted this RED Valentino PVC trench coat while shopping in San Francisco, and immediately fell in love with its jaunty attitude. We feel the same about this leather-piped PVC sandal with a buckled Mary Jane strap, by Manolo Blahnik. Finally, the PVC camellia brooch, by Chanel (of course), is a recent–but not current–rendering of one of the brand's key pieces of iconography. If you can't find it in stores, check ebay. As the 90s proved, no fashion ever dies–it just gets sold at auction.

Our Lady of Immaculate Soles: The Cult of Stilettos

Just last month, we saw a fun documentary, God Save My Shoes, directed by Julie Benasra and produced by Thierry Daher. It's now available on DVD (click the film's name, above, to go to the site), and it's a worthwhile purchase for anyone who loves shoes, or is simply interested in the symbolic roles they've played throughout history. There are interviews with designers like Manolo Blahnik, Walter Steiger and, bien sûr, Christian Louboutin, whose Fall 2012 collection we recently previewed in Paris and New York (where we saw this chic glitter pump with a vinyl vamp piped with nude patent, and a black bow). The film's director also spoke to fashion historians (including Valerie Steele, director of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Elizabeth Semmelhack, senior curator at the Bata Shoe Museum); sexual psychologists; and even an orthopedic surgeon. But the real stars are the various women who literally bare their soles for the camera. Personalities as different as burlesque star Dita Von Teese, pop singers Kelly Rowland and Fergie, and prima ballerina Marie-Agnès Gillot (from the Opéra de Paris) either take the viewer into their closets or sit and wax poetic about what shoes mean to them. And if you're a shoe addict yourself, you'll recognize more than a few kindred spirits.