Carolin Holzhuber / Rebecca May Johnson

Designer
Caroline Holzhuber

Austrian born footwear designer and shoemaker, Carolin Holzhuber, presents a selection of footwear pieces from two of her collections, ‘Conjoined Illusion’ and ‘Pulse’. Based around the concepts of mirroring, visual illusions and conjoined twins, ‘Conjoined Illusion’ demonstrates Holzhuber’s playful approach to form and careful attention to shape and functionality. Each pair is made of four carbon fibre soles that are connected in various ways, allowing the main themes of reflection and optical illusions to be skilfully conveyed in the design of the uppers and the platforms. The pieces in ‘Pulse’ were made in collaboration with the British womenswear designer Francesca Capper for her S/S15 collection. Natural movement and rhythm, such as the pulse beat, played a significant role in the creation of this collection. 

Holzhuber holds a BA in Fashion from Fashion Institute Vienna, in cooperation with the University of Art and Design Linz, as well as an MA in Fashion Footwear from London College of Fashion. She has held internships at the bespoke shoemaker Andreas Kudweis in Vienna, the British footwear brand and designer Atalanta Weller and London based footwear brand FINSK. Exhibitions include ‘SHOEting Stars’ at the Kunst Haus Wien Museum Hundertwasser 2014, and ITS 2014 as a finalist at the International Talent Support 2014 in the category accessories. Holzhuber is currently based in East London where she is developing her own brand and footwear workshop. 

www.carolinholzhuber.com

Author
Rebecca May Johnson

Rebecca May Johnson is a writer and journalist. She has written fashion features for many publications including The Daily Telegraph, ELLE, The Financial Times, Monocle, Tank, Observer magazine and Salt magazine and is also Editorial Associate at Business of Fashion. She is currently completing a PhD on Contemporary German Poetry at UCL with a focus on the theoretical and poetic work of Barbara Köhler. She has recently started to write poetry and was one of the winners of the British Museum’s ‘Germany: memories of a nation’ poetry competition. She also writes a cooking blog called Dinner Document.

each one is almost
but not quite one:
 
one, but two as well
one above and one below

first, one is above and
then one is below and
then one is above and
then one is below

two ones
not the same,
not quite.
one and one make one

– all together

here is the shoe, blue
and here is the shoe, white
there and here
blue and white
one each colour,
there are two
but they still make one

– absurd

the colours are cool
cool and smooth,
cool and clear headed,
calculating as a structural engineer shooting steel
sky high into blue and white.
cool leather,
skins turned blue,
turned white and facing each other
one high one low
here is the shoe
so where is the foot?

where should the foot
where should the shoe
where above
and where below?

which the foot
which the shoe
what foot
what shoe
should go
where
should it go

walking ?

it should be a shoe
in for each foot
but one and one
make two for one foot
and only one can go in each

making the choice between one and one
slows the pace
of shoeing the foot

four shoes for two feet
four that can only go
two at a time