The Melonia Shoe, created by the fashion designer Naim Josefi and industrial designer Souzan Youssouf, claims to be the first 3D-printed couture shoe in the world. It is a beautiful design, with a novel concept of being designed specifically for each individual user’s feet through the use of scanners. But it is its use of only one material, nylon for its ease in recycling after the shoes’ useful lives have expired, that makes it couture. It is couture in the sense of its infeasibility.
Courtesy of Naim Josefi + Souzan Youssouf
The insistence on not mixing several materials which would cross-contaminate during the recycling process, makes the shoe difficult to wear and realistically walk in. While 3D-printing creates purity of form- it also creates rigidity. The idea is great, but a pair of nylon straps with 3D-print-incorporated slots would have detracted nothing from the concept of purity and made them more wearable than a loose pair of clogs.
Courtesy of Naim Josefi + Souzan Youssouf
