What Lays Between Two Toes Deconstruction and Affect: Exploring the Tabi Boots

What lays between two toes Deconstruction and Affect: Exploring the Tabi boots

Angelika Watta

Department of Media Studies Stockholm University Master Thesis / Fashion Studies (30 credits) Spring 2021 Supervisor: Louise Wallenberg

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the affective capacity of the Tabi boots by examining the object through the ideas of deconstruction. The boots by Maison Martin Margiela were first introduced in 1989 and sold in different variations over the course of the past 30 years. Although there have been several attempts to acknowledge the importance of the body in fashion studies, scholars have not focused on the literal experience of wearing a garment, examined through the touch. Thus, this study begins with a close object study of a pair of Tabi boots and draws on phenomenology to capture the feeling of being dressed. The emphasis is laid upon exploring how the ideas of deconstruction are embedded in the Tabi boots while staying open to other theoretical inquiries. Striving to test the affective potential of the boots, deduced in the first chapter, the second part of this thesis moves from the perception of the ‘I’ to other wearers of the Tabi boots. In conducting qualitative semi-structured interviews, the aim is to understand how the characteristics of the boots may affect the wearer and how this affective capacity may lead to a becoming, as defined by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Guided by ‘applied theory’, this thesis allowed material, theory, and methods to continuously interact and affect each other.

Keywords: Deconstruction, Affect Theory, Applied Theory, Object Study, Becoming, Tabi boots

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my thankfulness to the interviewees for their time, insights and openness towards this study. I learned so much from you. I am also thankful to my family for always cheering and never questioning my path. I would like to express my very great appreciation to my supervisor Louise Wallenberg for creating an environment, in which I felt safe to express and follow my ideas. Thank you.

Table of Contents

Introduction ...... 1

Research aims and questions ...... 5

Methodology ...... 6

Theoretical Framework ...... 12

Material ...... 14

Previous research ...... 15

Outline ...... 20

Chapter 1: Exploring the Tabi boots ...... 21

Describing ...... 22

Deducing ...... 25

Speculating ...... 33 Reflecting the system ...... 33 Deconstructing the norm ...... 36 Affective fashion ...... 41

Chapter 2: Wearing the Tabi boot ...... 44

Interview: The Method ...... 45

The findings ...... 46

Discussion ...... 52

Conclusion ...... 59

Bibliography ...... 64

Appendix ...... 75

Introduction

“Is it not astonishing that clothes, one of the essentials of life, have withstood any rational investigation such as we apply to food or shelter?” Bernard Rudofsky asks in the press release announcing the first exhibition dedicated to fashion in the history of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.1 The exhibition Are clothes modern? that went on display in 1944 constituted an attempt to begin this investigation.2 In 2017, 73 years later, the museum continued its commitment to explore this field with its second exhibition that centered around clothing, following up with the question: “Is fashion modern?”3 The display, looking for answers, featured 111 items that were said to have a significant impact on the world in the 20th and 21st centuries and that “continue to hold currency today”.4 Next to a pair of Levi’s 501 and the sari, a black leather boot with a split-toe was placed in a glass showcase – the Tabi boot by Maison Margiela. October 23, 1988. Café de la Gare, Paris. For the presentation of his first collection, Martin Margiela invited his guests into a nightclub in the 3rd Arrondissement.5 Margiela, founder and designer of the brand, “drenched his models in red paint so that the unusual footprints they left behind were clearly visible on the white catwalk”.6 This was the first appearance of the Tabi boot. In a review of the Spring/Summer 1989 collection, a journalist from the New York Times noticed “bizarre platform shoes with tonged toes”.7 Apparently, the split-toe of the traditional jika-tabi worn by workers, caught the designer’s attention during a visit to Japan.8 Inspired by this construction, he created his interpretation of the shoe by adding a cylindrical heel.9 The Tabi boot is still produced, reformulated – and sold today. In recent years, the boot has gained new popularity. 30 years after its initial presentation, the sales of the

1 “Tradition Challenged In Museum of Modern Art Exhibition, Are Clothes Modern?”, The Museum of Modern Art,1944, https://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/press_archives/963/releases/MOMA_1944_0049_1944-11- 27_441127-41.pdf. 2 Ibid. 3 “Items: Is Fashion Modern?”, The Museum of Modern Art, accessed February 7, 2021, https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1638. 4 Ibid. 5 Alexandre Samson, The Women’s Collections 1989-2009 Martin Margiela (New York: Rizzoli Electa 2018), 8. 6 Olivia Singer, “The Tale of Margiela’s Tabi Boot”, AnOther, September 01, 2015, https://www.anothermag.com/fashion-beauty/7721/the-tale-of-margielas-tabi-boot. 7 Paola Antonelli and Michelle Millar Fisher, Items: Is Fashion Modern? (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2017), 245. 8 Ibid. 9 Samson, The Women’s Collections 1989-2009 Martin Margiela, 8.

Tabi boot are increasing.10 On Instagram, the profile calling itself the ‘Tabi Archive’ began to share pictures of the split-toe construction in 2015 and gained a following of 45.6k followers since.11 Nevertheless, the Tabi boot has been repeatedly referred to as an object capable of “dividing opinions”.12 In a review in Vogue, Lara Johnson-Wheeler describes the reactions to wearing the Tabi boots as “extraordinary”: “A colleague told me that looking at my feet made her physically sick.”13 In Sparks Magazine, Shannon Homan notes that the Tabi boot confused her: “From afar, it appears to be just like any other ankle boot, but up close it’s strange.”14 Although the popularity of the boots may have risen, it still appears as a controversial design. In a video, the YouTuber ‘Gallucks’ recorded the reactions of friends and family members while showing them a pair of Tabi boots. “Awful”, his mum answers.15 When he asks her what it is exactly that she does not like about the boots, she points to the toe-box. His boyfriend reacts in a similar way: “I feel like I want to jump out the balcony. These are probably the ugliest shoes I’ve ever seen.”16 While holding the toe-box closer to the camera, he screams: “What the hell.”17 On the other hand, wearing the shoes is described in a different manner. Linda Loppa, who was the head of the fashion department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and gave one pair of Tabi boots to the Mode Museum in Antwerp, noted: “The Tabi shoes make you feel a bit different. Your attitude, your pose, your way of walking, of thinking probably also is different.”18 Lou Stoppard, an editor of SHOWstudio tweeted: “Buying Margiela Tabi boots is a real turning point in feeling like a strong independent woman. Totally man repelling in every way.”19 Although Margiela’s design language has been the object of several discussions in the field of fashion studies and even though the Tabi boots have been described as the “best-known

10 Kati Chitrakorn, “Why Margiela’s Tabi Boots Is Minting Money”, Business of Fashion, February 27, 2019, https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/why-fashion-loves-the-margiela-tabi-boot. 10 Ibid. 11 MargielaTabi1, Instagram, accessed May 22, 2021, https://www.instagram.com/margielatab1/. 12 Lara Johnson-Wheeler, “Why Margiela’s Tabi Boots Are Still Dividing Opinion, 30 Years On”, Vogue, March 1, 2018, https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/what-to-know-about-margiela-tabi-boots. 13 Ibid. 14 Shannon Homan, “The Dark Side of Fashions Most Divisive Shoe”, Spark Magazine, May 17, 2019, https://www.sparkmagazinetx.com/stories/the-dark-side-of-fashions-most-divisive-shoe. 15 Gallucks, “Margiela sent me tabi boots? you’ve goat to be kidding me”, YouTube video, 11:18, April 29, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPYiQJ50DuI. 16 Ibid. 17 Ibid. 18 “MoMA, Martin Margiela. Tabi Boot. 1989-2008.” MoMa, accessed May 20, 2020, https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/43/688. 19 Leslie Zhang, “Delicately Heinous: The Unlikely Success of the Margiela Tabi”, Heroine, October 13, 2017, https://www.heroine.com/the-editorial/margiela-tabi.

2 item in Margiela’s vocabulary”, the boots have only been a by-product of scholarly attention, but never at its center.20 In my thesis, I aim to investigate the relation between the boots and their wearers. Doing so, I lay the focus on exploring the experience of wearing the boots and theorizing these feelings. While the approach to study dress as representation is dominating, the affective dimension has been identified as a gap in fashion studies.21 With my analysis, I strive to contribute to the field by filling the research space that has been left unexplored while pointing to the different directions that the study of a single object may lead to. Throughout the analysis, I will make use of a multi-methodological approach that begins with the object and moves on to other materials, methods and theories. Fashion scholar Francesca Granata describes “applied theory” as one way that allows for a combination of “fashion and design history and theory, along with critical theory, cultural history, feminist theory, as well as film studies”.22 This approach has been deemed as particularly suitable for the study of a contemporary object, as it is recorded in various media.23 Thus, this exploration will draw on different materials, such as the object, its reinterpretations in digital archives, videos and pictures of fashion shows, as well as interviews with wearers of the Tabi boots. In my aim to understand what constitutes the relation between the boots and their wearers, I will accordingly employ ‘applied theory,’ acknowledging that fashion’s involvement in a range of terrains concerning the body, gender and appearance speaks for an interdisciplinary approach to study it.24 This analysis will be set in the theoretical framework of ‘deconstruction’ as defined by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. The idea of this concept is based on “releasing unheard-of, undreamt-of possibilities to come, toward cracking nutshells wherever they appear”.25 Derrida used the term to describe the way he went about thinking. In his first publication Of Grammatology he draws on the ideas of deconstructive thinking in order to

20 Francesca Granata, Experimental Fashion: Performance Art, Carnival and the Grotesque Body (New York: I.B. Tauris, 2017), 97; Caroline Evans, “The Golden Dustman: A Critical Evaluation of the Work of Martin Margiela and a Review of Margiela Exhibition (9/4/1615)”, Fashion theory 2, no. 1 (1998): 79.; Barbara Vinken, Fashion Zeitgeist: Trends and cycles in the fashion system (Oxford: Berg, 2005), 143. 21 Lucia Ruggerone, “The Feeling of Being Dressed: Affect Studies and the Clothed Body”, Fashion Theory 21, no. 5 (2016): 580. 22 Francesca Granata, “Fitting Sources - Tailoring Methods: A Case Study of Martin Margiela and the Temporalities of Fashion” in Fashion Studies, Research Methods, Sites and Practices, ed. Heike Jenss (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016), 148. 23 Alexandra Palmer, “New Directions: Fashion History Studies and Research in North America and England”, The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture 1, no. 3 (1997): 302. 24 Christopher Breward. The Culture of Fashion: A New History of Fashionable Dress (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1995), 2. 25 John D. Caputo, “Deconstruction in a Nutshell. The Very Idea (!)” in Deconstruction in a Nutshell, A Conversation with Jacques Derrida, ed. John D. Caputo (New York: Fordham University, 1997), 31.

3 dismantle his own strand of research, namely philosophy, and disclose the way speech has always been superior to writing.26 He notes how our perception of the world is defined by a dualism, in which one thing is always privileged over the other.27 Thus, he does not only expose the structures of philosophy but questions, overall, our ways of thinking and seeing the world. Deconstruction may therefore be understood as uncovering binary thinking and underlying structures, which is a process that leads to new insights. Although many have understood Derrida’s writings as a disruptive critique, ‘deconstruction’ is not concerned with destroying, but with making the structures visible, and disclosing the assumptions that are concealed under layers of traditions.28 I aim to use the theory of deconstruction as a guidance through the material. Doing so, I do not intend to apply every aspect of the theory to the material investigated. Instead, I strive to create meaningful connections between the philosophical concept and the object to analyze the construction of the shoe. The reason I think the exploration of the Tabi boots will be fruitful in this setting are the several parallels identified between deconstructive thinking and the era of post-fashion, to which Margiela belongs.29 Fashion scholar Allison Gill notes that one can find an interesting encounter between philosophy and deconstructive fashion, which “works […] from the inside of a garment and through the practice that has always been fashion’s domain – ‘dressing the body’”.30 Furthermore, deconstructive thinking comes with the necessity to “understand how an ‘ensemble’ was constituted and to reconstruct it to this end”.31 This necessity informs the aim of my thesis, which is to not only explore how wearing a certain piece of clothing can affect how we feel but moreover, to uncover what constitutes this feeling. Doing so, I will furthermore rely on ‘affect theory’ which accommodates an attentiveness to the body and its senses. Affects may be perceived as forces that come before intentions. Thus, they can only be grasped with an understanding that is not based on the notion that our minds control our bodies. Rather, affect is “born in in-between-ness”.32 Therefore, affect theory questions the strict division between body and mind while seeking to find new ways and tools to think of matter and emotions at the same time.

26 Derrida, Of Grammatology (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), 27. 27 Derrida, Positions (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1981), 41. 28 Caputo, “Deconstruction in a Nutshell: The Very Idea (!)”, 36-37. 29 Vinken, Fashion Zeitgeist: Trends and cycles in the fashion system, 35. 30 Allison Gill, “Deconstruction in Fashion: The Making of Unfinished, Decomposing and Re-assembled Clothes”, Fashion Theory 2, no. 1 (1998): 28-29. 31 Derrida, “Letter to a Japanese Friend” in Derrida and Différance, ed. David Wood and Robert Bernasconi (Warwick: Parousia Press, 1985), 2. 32 Melissa Gregg and Gregory J. Seigworth, “An Inventory of Shimmers” in The Affect Theory Reader, ed. Melissa Gregg and Gregory J. Seigworth (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010), 2.

Thus, I strive to explore what Lucia Ruggerone refers to as “the feeling of being dressed”, acknowledging that the relation between the body and the object is a complex one and the concept of tactility should therefore not be excluded from its analysis.33 In order to grasp and contextualize this experience, I will rely on a phenomenological approach, as it “takes our sensory presentations to consciousness seriously”, and furthermore, emphasizes “the lived experience of inhabiting a body”.34 Although drawing on its instruments, this study does not attempt to be a phenomenological one. Whilst both, phenomenology and affect theory stem from the aim to overcome the mind-body duality, the latter may be understood as a radicalization of “the phenomenological idea of nonconceptual embodied coping” as it “no longer supports but instead undermines rational judgement and claims to knowledge”.35 Thus, affect may be understood as striving towards acknowledging the in-betweenness, acknowledging them without reliance on the subject, as affects “take place below the threshold of conscious awareness and meaning”.36 Throughout the object analysis and interviews, I will accordingly lay the focus on the tactile experience of wearing the boots and draw on the tool of emotional recollection in order to grasp their affective dimension. It is in its potential to affect that fashion has been ascribed the power to provoke change, to lead to a becoming, “even if the new forms of embodiment it engenders are not permanent”.37 This possibility, the notion of becoming will thus be explored in-depth throughout this study.

Research aims and questions

Whilst scholars have critically examined Margiela’s design language, little attention has been placed on the feeling of wearing his designs.38 Hence, the emphasis of this thesis lays on exploring the effect that the Tabi boots have on the wearer while aiming to understand what creates this experience. Taking the Tabi boots as a lens, this study is concerned with examining fashion’s capacities to affect the body and the perception of the self. I shall explore the relation

33 Ruggerone, “The Feeling of Being Dressed: Affect Studies and the Clothed Body”, 574. 34 Mark Paterson, The senses of Touch: Haptics, Affects and Technologies (Oxford, New York: Berg, 2007), 21.; Sara Ahmed, “Orientations: Toward a Queer Phenomenology”, A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 12, no. 4 (2006): 544. 35 Linda M. G. Zerilli, “The Turn to Affect and the Problem of Judgement”, New Literary History 46, no. 2 (Spring 2015): 268. 36 Ibid. 37 Stephen D. Seely, “How Do You Dress a Body Without Organs? Affective Fashion and Nonhuman Becoming”, Women’s Studies Quarterly 41, no. 1/2 (2012): 264. 38 Vinken, Fashion Zeitgeist: Trends and cycles in the fashion system, 139-152; Granata, Experimental Fashion: Performance Art, Carnival and the Grotesque Body, 74-118; Gill, “Deconstruction in Fashion: The Making of Unfinished, Decomposing and Re-assembled Clothes”, 25-50.

5 of the boots and their wearers relying on four legs. The boots will be studied on the basis of its materiality, the subject, its visual representations and the experience of wearing them. The Tabi boots will be discussed with the ideas of deconstructive thinking and examined by drawing on affect theory. Throughout my exploration, I will be guided by the following research questions:

o How are the ideas of deconstructive thinking embedded in the Tabi boots? o How do the characteristics of the Tabi boots affect the wearer? o How may wearing the Tabi boots lead to a ‘becoming’?

To seek answers to my questions, I begin with an object-based study on the Tabi boots, which will be supported by other materials such as images of fashion shows and the visual study of Tabi boots presented in digital archives. Furthermore, in-depth interviews shall aid to understand the subjective experiences of wearing the Tabi boots. Although this exploration is set in the theoretical framework of deconstruction, I will moreover draw on the ideas proposed by ‘felt’ phenomenology, which is described as a “potentially radical framework for understanding touch, affect and intersubjectivity through, and between, situated and emplaced bodies”.39 Furthermore, I will stay open to other theoretical inquiries throughout my study that the object may lead me to.

Methodology

In my thesis, I rely on a multimethodological approach to study fashion that is centered around the object. This is especially noteworthy as there have been discussions in the field of fashion studies about which methods are suitable for the academic circle. Curator Alexandra Palmer noted in 1997 that the escalating interest in costumes from disciplines outside of fashion, shows that dress historians need to approach their research in a more critical, analytical, and theoretical manner.40 Although acknowledging the contribution of fashion scholars such as Elizabeth Wilson, she noted that these researchers are not grounded in object-based studies and can easily introduce errors about the actual piece of clothing.41 Furthermore, dress historian Lou Taylor noted that her profession, being based on artifact studies, has still not been suitably

39 Paterson, The senses of Touch: Haptics, Affects and Technologies, 148. 40 Palmer, “New Directions: Fashion History Studies and Research in North America and England”, 299. 41 Ibid., 300.

6 acknowledged in the academic realm.42 Anthropologist Daniel Miller remembers how in the beginning of his career, the theoretical approach took over while objects were merely seen as “signs and symbols that represent us”.43 Miller conducted several ethnographical studies on garments such as the sari, finding that clothing has the capacity to play “a considerable and active part in constituting the particular experience of the self, in determining what the self is”.44 Instead of approaching clothes merely as an instrument of representation, he urges for a closer look into how clothing constitute the self.45 Furthermore, historian Leora Auslander emphasizes the importance of moving “beyond words” and being attentive to material culture.46 She pledges for acknowledging that the role of objects is not a passive one but that they can act through their “communicative, performative, emotive and expressive capacities” and thus, affect the world.47 What arose from this discussion was a divide between theoretical and object-centered studies. Nonetheless, Sophie Woodward and Tom Fisher argue that “the material and cultural are not separate but co-constitutive” and therefore demand an approach to study fashion that also focuses on the material.48 The need to approach fashion in a manner that acknowledges the multiplicity of its phenomena has been voiced by several fashion scholars. Heike Jenss notes the “essential need for the use, combination, and adaption of multiple methods” when exploring fashion, as it is characterized by various practices and forms.49 Susan B. Kaiser and Denise Nicole Green further emphasize that every method has its limits and thereupon, the “wildly interdisciplinary field of fashion studies” demands its mixture.50 A methodology that corresponds to the twofold receivables to study fashion is ‘applied theory.’ Caroline Evans uses this term to describe a way of studying fashion that allows to “join up disparate histories, designs and ideas in order to caste new light on contemporary practice and its context”.51 Working with applied theory is not only based on using theory as a guide through the material, but to adopt theories as a lens through which the material can be read.

42 Lou Taylor, The study of dress history (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2002), 3. 43 Daniel Miller, Stuff (Cambridge: Polity, 2010), 12. 44 Miller, Stuff, 40. 45 Ibid., 23. 46 Leora Auslander, “Beyond words”, American Historical Review 110, no. 4 (2005): 1016. 47 Ibid., 1017. 48 Sophie Woodward and Tom Fisher, “Fashioning through materials: Material culture, materiality and processes of materialization”, Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty 5, no. 1 (2014): 12. 49 Heike Jenss, “Mixed Methods Introduction”, Fashion Studies, Research Methods, Sites and Practice, 11. 50 Susan B. Kaiser and Denise Nicole Green, “Mixing Qualitative and Quantative Methods in Fashion Studies: Philosophical Underpinnings and Multiple Masculinities”, Fashion Studies, Research Methods, Sites and Practice, 160. 51 Evans, Fashion at the edge: spectacle, modernity and deathliness, 3.

Fashion scholar Francesca Granata positions ‘applied theory’ as a method that enables the researcher to place “the objects and images in dialogue with a theoretical framework”.52 This multifaceted methodology has proved to be particularly fruitful in the discussion of experimental fashion. Evans, for instance, explores this strand of fashion that emerged in the 1990s looking at articles in magazines, runway shows and garments while analyzing them with the aid of various theoretical concepts.53 Granata examines experimental fashion through the close study of objects, while drawing on its visual representations, journalistic perceptions, videos and films produced by the fashion houses as well as oral history.54 Using Mikhail M. Bakhtin’s writings on the grotesque, she reads her material through this particular lens, while drawing on other theories throughout her analysis. In a similar manner albeit with a different theoretical focus, Gill analyses the design language of Martin Margiela through garments, its perception in fashion commentary and compares them to other designers in the framework of deconstruction as coined by Derrida.55 Through a back and forth between the material and Derrida’s writing, she offers an analysis of deconstructive fashion that opens a “testing ground to explore innovation and design differently”.56 Therefore, making use of theory as a method to investigate specific designs does not only allow for a greater understanding of the matter but may further expand our perception of the concept and open up “new possibilities for theories of fashion”.57 These scholars have demonstrated how using theory as a guidance leads to fruitful and unexpected discussions of fashion and may indeed be a way to “overcome the prejudice imposed by the limits of the evidence in one research area”.58 My choice to follow this method is, moreover, inspired by the chosen theoretical frameworks. As the title of this thesis gives away, the analysis of the Tabi boots shall be linked to the concept of ‘deconstruction,’ as defined by Derrida. The French philosopher criticized Western thinking as based upon binary oppositions, where one concept always has the primacy over the other. He stated that we are not dealing with the peaceful coexistence of the opposed “but rather with a violent hierarchy”.59 The method of ‘applied theory’ does not require a

52 Granata, “Fitting Sources - Tailoring Methods: A Case Study of Martin Margiela and the Temporalities of Fashion”, 142. 53 Evans, Fashion at the edge. 54 Granata, Experimental Fashion: Performance Art, Carnival and the Grotesque Body. 55 Gill, “Deconstruction in Fashion: The Making of Unfinished, Decomposing and Re-assembled Clothes.” 56 Allison Gill, “Jacques Derrida Fashion under Erasure”, in Thinking through fashion, A Guide to Key Theorists, edited by Agnés Rocamora and Anneke Smelik (London, New York: I.B. Tauris, 2016), 267. 57 Granata, “Fitting Sources - Tailoring Methods: A Case Study of Martin Margiela and the Temporalities of Fashion”, 148. 58 Palmer, “New Directions: Fashion History Studies and Research in North America and England”, 302. 59 Derrida, Positions, 41.

8 hierarchy of the material over theory, as one is not prioritized over the other. Furthermore, the analysis of sensory experience demands to overcome the duality of mind and body. Theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick describes her book Touching, Feeling, in which she examines affect, pedagogy and performativity through emotion and expression, as one that explores “promising tools and techniques for nondualistic thought”.60 Moreover, sociologist Lucia Ruggerone states that one cannot explore the relationship between people and garments while viewing clothes merely as an “intellectual liaison”, within a dualistic framework.61 The multi-methodological approach that relies on an object-study in combination with in-depth interviews, seems particularly useful in capturing the affective dimension of being dressed. In combining my personal, emotional recollection of wearing the Tabi boots with the analysis of texts and image, I strive to address “the affective practical experience of the clothed body in space”, which is a dimension that has been long overlooked in the analysis of clothes, as Ruggerone argues.62 However, an interdisciplinary approach simultaneously poses challenges that stem from its multifaceted nature. Drawing on various materials, one might, for instance, lose the object throughout the analysis. Furthermore, going back and forth between material and theory might lead to confusion. Reflecting on these risks, I strive to apply theory in a transparent way by outlining the methods I will employ during my analysis.

Object-based research The analysis of the Tabi boots sets off with the object in focus. Performing an object study shall aid to understand the characteristics of its design. Hence, I will study the cultural values and beliefs attached to the boots, following the methodology proposed by Jules David Prown.63 His method relies on the assumption that objects may “reflect the beliefs of individuals who made, commissioned, purchased or used them” as well as the values of the society to which the object belongs.64 Thus, I will begin the analysis by describing a black pair of Tabi boots that I own, record the “internal evidence”, and continue with the stage of deduction, which includes my emotional response to touching, wearing and therefore, feeling the boots.65 Bevis Nathan

60 Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Touching feeling: affect, pedagogy, performativity (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003), 1. 61 Ruggerone, “The Feeling of Being Dressed: Affect Studies and the Clothed Body”, 579. 62 Ibid., 577. 63 Jules David Prown, “Mind in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method”, Winterthur Portfolio 17, no. 1 (1982): 1. 64 Ibid., 1-2. 65 Ibid., 2.

9 refers to the ‘touch’ as a feeling that cannot be reduced to one sense but rather concerns our whole body.66 He writes how “an understanding of human touching may also lead us into a deeper understanding of constitution and relationship”.67 Following the writings on ‘felt’ phenomenology and regarding the touch as a feeling that affects us as a whole, I will offer a “rich description of feeling” in the second stage of the analysis.68 Next, I will move to the stage of speculation.69 During this final step, I will incorporate the element of comparison as outline by Edward McClung Fleming in his model to study artifacts.70 As suggested by Valerie Steele, I will compare the Tabi boots at hand with other interpretations of the boot, which have been released by the fashion house.71 This contrast shall enrich the analysis by examining how the interpretations relate to each other and to understand the foundation of the Tabi construction.

Semi-structured interviews To answer the question, how the characteristics of the boot affect the wearer, I conduct semi- structured in-depth interviews with six owners of a pair of Tabi boots. Doing so, I strive to explore the “situated bodily practice” of wearing the shoes in a manner that is “theoretically complex and empirically grounded”.72 In line with my research questions, I create a question guide that addresses the tactile experience of wearing the shoes. Following a phenomenological approach, I will ask the participants for specific and detailed descriptions of experiences and feelings, for how they act and feel in certain situations, rather than for explanations of general opinions.73 Thus, in conducting the interviews, I will draw on the theoretical underpinnings of affect theory, the notion that body and mind cannot be perceived separately. The questions are further informed by the insights I will gain throughout the object study, which involved my own experiences of touching and wearing the Tabi boots. I ask the participants to share their experiences of the first time they saw the shoe and tried them on, how they experience wearing the shoes outside as well as the memories they attach to them. As our “vision relies on the felt sense of embodiment and tactility for its orientation”, I will ask the participants to try the shoes

66 Bevis Nathan, “The sense of touch - a philosophical surprise”, Journal of holistic healthcare 4, no. 4 (November 2017): 26. 67 Ibid., 24-25. 68 Paterson, The senses of Touch: Haptics, Affects and Technologies, 165. 69 Prown, “Mind in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method”, 7. 70 E. McClung Fleming, “Artifact Study: A Proposed Model”, Winterthur Portfolio 9 (1974): 157. 71 Steele, “A Museum of Fashion is More than a Clothes Bag”, 330. 72 Joanne Entwistle, The Fashioned Body 2nd ed. (Hoboken: Wiley, 2015), 77. 73 Kvale and Brinkmann, InterViews: Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing, 30.

10 on and describe how wearing the shoes feels like.74 Throughout the conversation, I stayed open to new aspects that the interviewee would touch upon and ask follow-up questions. Steinar Kvale and Sven Brinkmann refer to this aspect as “Deliberate naiveté” and stress the importance of the “openness to new and unexpected phenomena, rather than having readymade categories and schemes of interpretation”.75 The question guide was adjusted and enriched as every interview came with new aspects and themes that I wanted to ask the following interviewees about. The recruitment was based on a post that I shared on Instagram, in which I wrote that I am working on my thesis about the Tabi boots and am looking for people who own and wear a pair to talk about their experiences. Five people messaged me, writing that they would like to talk to me. I was able to schedule meetings with four interviewees in this way. I actively reached out to one more person over Instagram, Ann-Sophie, as I saw that she posted pictures of her two pairs of Tabi shoes, and she was open to participate. Furthermore, I sent Robin an e-mail, as a friend gave me his address telling me that he owns a pair of Tabi boots, and we met in the middle of February. Thus, I talked to six owners of a pair of Tabi shoes. The interviews were conducted over Zoom and Google Hangout in January and February 2021. I conducted the meetings over the screen due to the restrictions that came with the development of Covid-19. The participants are located in Vienna, Berlin, Munich and Stockholm and it is not possible to travel safely at the time this thesis is written. I asked all the participants to turn the camera on, however one participant’s camera was not working. Except for this interview, I tried to be attentive to the embodied aspect of the conversation showing itself in “gestures, facial expressions and body language”, acknowledging that interviews are more than “asking questions, answering questions and listening to verbal content”.76 Accordingly, I included the bodily movements and facial expressions in brackets to the transcript, that each interview was audiotaped for. During the stage of interpretation, I will relate the findings from my object study to the participants’ answers and analyze these in the overarching framework of deconstruction while laying a focus on how the shoes “affected” our bodies.

74 Nathan, “The sense of touch - a philosophical surprise”, 27. 75 Ibid., 30. 76 Torkild Thanem and David Knights, Embodied Research Methods (London: SAGE Publications, 2019), 91.

Theoretical Framework

To analyze the construction of the shoe and how it relates to the wearer, the object will be investigated in the frame of deconstruction. As already discussed, the term has been defined by Derrida who used it as a way to rethink the structures of philosophy, exposing the way one thing is always privileged over another while uncovering the underlying traditions that constitute this notion. This philosophical concept is furthermore based on the idea that things such as texts, institutions, traditions and practices “exceed the boundaries that they currently occupy”.77 The fashion of the 1980s has been characterized as playful and bright while some of the designs that emerged from Europe in the 1990s are inscribed by a longing for what seemed impossible in fashion design at the time.78 The designs of that era have been either described as ‘experimental fashion,’ ‘postfashion’ or ‘anti fashion’.79 The parallel between the philosophical concept of deconstruction and the strand of fashion that emerged at the turn of the century is that of questioning how things have been done so far, including the automatic acceptance of authorities, structures and identities as fixed and thus, unchangeable. “Fashion had never dare to do anything like that”, a visitor of Margiela’s fashion show in 1992 reflected.80 Derrida describes deconstruction as the “undoing, decomposing, and disedimenting of structures”.81 The deconstructive analysis that arose from this idea is based on the exposition of the present to something “wholly other” that is “beyond the horizon of the ‘same’”.82 The notion of undoing and moving beyond the present can also be observed in the way that experimental fashion attempted to “chart new social identities”.83 Granata notes that the bodies and subjects that defined the fashion at the turn of the century were the ones that “upset gender and bodily norms and rules of propriety and beauty”.84 Beside the will to overcome the limits of the present, another parallel can be drawn between experimental fashion and the notion of deconstruction, which centers around the concept of tradition. Derrida aimed to show that the term ‘tradition’ describes not a singular, but numerous traditions.85 He sees deconstruction not as a way of disrupting traditions but to

77 Caputo, “Deconstruction in a Nutshell: The Very Idea (!)”, 31. 78 “Anti Fashion 90s”, YouTube video, 01:49, 25.08.2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kle_lPRtNs&t=188s&has_verified=1. 79 Evans, Fashion at the edge, 4; Vinken, Fashion Zeitgeist: Trends and cycles in the fashion system, 24; “Anti Fashion 90s”, YouTube video, 54:42, 25.08.2017. 80 “Anti Fashion 90s”, 16:12. 81 Derrida, Derrida and Difference, 2. 82 Caputo, “Deconstruction in a Nutshell: The Very Idea (!)”, 41. 83 Evans, Fashion at the edge: spectacle, modernity and deathliness, 6. 84 Granata, Experimental Fashion: Performance Art, Carnival and the Grotesque Body, 2. 85 Caputo, “Deconstruction in a Nutshell: The Very Idea (!)”, 37.

12 translate them continuously into new events.86 The fashion system is a construction of brands that are put into different categories, presentations of clothes structured into seasons, with the concepts of designers, head-designers, different forms of marketing and representation. It can therefore be understood as one tradition that is defined by a set of multiple traditions. When designers have been analyzed in the frame of ‘deconstruction,’ these examinations did not only center around their undoing of garments but furthermore to their decomposing of the fashion system itself. Most prominently, the Derridean thoughts on texts, on ‘undoing’ and constructions, have been applied to the actual clothing. Bill Cunningham, a street style photographer from New York, was one of the first to make this reference publicly, describing the structure of Margiela’s designs as being under attack, inscribed by “displacing seams, tormenting the surface with incision”.87 Deconstruction has been used as a lens through which one can read garments that look “unfinished, undone, destroyed as ‘deconstructed’ fits”.88 This literal deconstruction of the garment has been interpreted as representing a “’new thinking’”, as constituting a novelty that introduced “resistance and chaos to the traditional clothes paradigm”.89 The research conducted on garments, which have been read as ‘deconstructed’ suggest a sense of newness and non-conformity. This capacity that has been assigned to deconstructive fashion informs my research question, whether and how wearing the Tabi boots may lead to a ‘becoming.’ A closer look at the construction of the shoe and how the interviewees describe the practice of wearing them, shall contribute to answer this question. To fully capture and understand this experience of wearing the Tabi boots and what constitutes this feeling, I will furthermore, draw on the theory of affect. Sedgwick notes how “texture seems like a promising level of attention for shifting the emphasis […] away from the recent ﬁxation on epistemology” and how its investigation may lead to new questions about phenomenology and affect.90 It is in this regard that I understand ‘What lays between two toes?’ as a question. The literal answer would be nothing, a gap, uninhabited space. Just as the touch cannot be ‘felt’ through just one organ, just as the ‘effect’ cannot be measured, it is still there. To understand what cannot be recorded, I will draw on the concept of “tactility” as constituting

86 Ibid. 87 Bill Cunningham, “The Collections”, Details, September 1989, 246, quoted in Francesca Granata, “Bill Cunningham on Deconstructivist Fashion”, The Fashion Project, June 27, 2016, https://www.fashionprojects.org/blog/2016/6/27/bill-cunningham-on-deconstructivist-fashion. 88 Gill, “Deconstruction in Fashion: The Making of Unfinished, Decomposing and Re-assembled Clothes”, 28. 89 Ibid.; Maria Skivko, “Deconstruction in Fashion as a Path Toward New Beauty Standards: The Maison Margiela Case”, ZonaMode Journal 10, no. 1 (July 2020): 42. 90 Sedgwick, Touching Feeling, Affect Pedagogy, Performativity, 17.

13 the feeling, as standing in for the “profound and primary whole-person experience at the level of our essential bodily being”. 91 Ruggerone argues that the insights from theories of body and affects can be used to fill the gap that exists in fashion studies.92 It is in this frame, that “the power of clothing [..] to transform the wearers is pushed to the fore”.93 Although Margiela’s design language has already been read through the lens of deconstruction, I aim to expand these analyses by laying the focus on one single object. I believe that doing so will not only aid to unpack its meaning but paired with an ‘affective’ reading in the frame of ‘applied theory’, also bear novelty to this approach – and lead to new insights of how a single object may affect and change our perception of the environment and the self.

Material

This thesis is based on a variety of materials including the object, interviews, images and texts that contextualize it. In the first chapter, I will conduct an object centered study of a pair of Tabi boots, which I acquired on the online-platform Vestiaire Collective, on which vintage pieces are sold by their owners. Doing so, I will perform “factual comparisons of one object with others of its kind in quantifiable terms” and analyze the reinterpretations of the Tabi boot, which were released by the fashion house in the last thirty years.94 These analyses should have been conducted in the archives of the Fashion Museum in Antwerp, the city in which Martin Margiela studied Design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.95 Due to the restrictions that came with the outburst of Covid-19, the close study in the separate study collection in the Mode Museum, where I would have been able to touch and “feel” the different variations of the Tabi boots, was not possible. Instead, I decided to move into the online archives of museums to analyze the ways the Tabi boots are represented in these collections. The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, the RISD Museum in Rhode Island, the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences in Sydney, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as well as the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston all host an online accessible collection with a pair of Tabi boots. The different ways of approaching the study of an object, being able to touch and try the boots on in contrast

91 Nathan, “The sense of touch - a philosophical surprise”, 26. 92 Ruggerone, “The Feeling of Being Dressed: Affect Studies and the Clothed Body”, 580. 93 Ibid. 94 Fleming, “Artifact Study: A Proposed Model”, 157. 95 “The Fashion Department”, Antwerp Fashion Department, accessed April 19, 2021, https://antwerp- fashion.be/about/.

14 to looking at them through the screen, shall bear the possibility to reflect on the methodology employed throughout the exploration. In the following chapter, I will draw on in-depth interviews with six wearers of the Tabi boots to answer my research question. These will be conducted through video calls; in which the participants also show me the pictures of the pair they own. The sample for these interviews is random and based on a post on Instagram, in which I ask if someone wants to talk with me about the Tabi boots and the experience of wearing them. My findings will be discussed with affect theory and the ideas of deconstruction, which is an approach that has been repeatedly assigned to Margiela’s design language.

Previous research

Deconstructive fashion In “Deconstruction Fashion: The Making of Unfinished, Decomposing and Re-assembled Clothes,” Gill traces the Derridean thoughts on deconstruction in several disciplines such as architecture, graphic design, film – and fashion. This exploration leads to her argument that practices which embrace deconstruction have a tendency “to investigate the underlying principles and conditions of operation of these disciplines”.96 In Margiela’s designs, this tendency can be observed in two different manners. It constitutes itself through the “reversal of construction,” which shows itself in the clothing looking unfinished and undone – as well as in the exposure of the frame that holds the fashion system together, which he “revealed like a clothing skeleton”.97 In this line of thought, Gill claims that the designer, when deconstructing his garments and while staying anonymous, also deconstructs the aura of the designer garment as well as the myth of innovation, which characterizes the industry.98 Margiela’s anonymity has repeatedly been the subject of articles in different fashion publications.99 Kaat Debo interprets Margiela’s avoidance of the limelight to “allow his fashion to speak for itself.”100

96 Gill, “Deconstruction Fashion: The Making of Unfinished, Decomposing and Reassembled Clothes”, 28. 97 Ibid., 28-31. 98 Ibid., 31. 99 “Maison Martin Margiela | The Cult of Invisibility - Part One”, Business Of Fashion, October 28, 2009, https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/maison-martin-margiela-part-one-%E2%80%93-the- cult-of-invisibility.;Jeremy Lewis, “A Peek Behind the Martin Margiela Mystique”, The Cut, April 17, 2015, https://www.thecut.com/2015/04/peek-behind-the-martin-margiela-mystique.html.; Emma Brown, “Beyond the Margiela Myth”, Interview, April 21, 2015, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/alison-chernick-the-artist- is-absent. 100 Kaat Debo, Maison Martin Margiela ‘20‘ The exhibition (Antwerp: MoMu, 2008), 18.

Fashion scholar Barbara Vinken further notes how the designer wins the “fascination of the single piece” for his fashion.101 In her book Fashion Zeitgeist: Trends and Cycles in the Fashion System, Vinken recounts and reflects on what has always been attributed as a main function to fashion, being a driver of division. In her research, she traces how the discourse on fashion has always been closely aligned with the division of class and the division of the sexes, while linking the concept of femininity to desire. Vinken describes the relation between fashion and the “fetish of femininity”, as clear, as one that continued throughout the evolution of the dandy and even throughout the evolution of couture.102 This connection only got reversed with and by the fashion that emerged in the late 1980s, which is why Vinken refers to this strand of design as “postfashion”.103 In her book, she does not only review the developments that led to this reversal but furthermore explores the work of the protagonists of this new era. Her eleventh chapter is dedicated to the work of Martin Margiela, whom the author described as the “founder of deconstruction in fashion”.104 Her analysis focuses on the mannequin, which has been a recurring element in Margiela’s presentations of clothes, interpreting Margiela’s use of mannekins as an exposure of the standardized beauty ideal that they embody.105 Although she points to some of Margiela’s pieces, she only touches upon the single objects, referring to the Tabi boots merely once when describing the inner linings of a piece “made out of cotton which still bears the traces of the hoof-like shoes of the models, dipped in red dye, from the last show”.106 Although Granata gives the Tabi boots slightly more space in her exploration, she still only mentions them once in her book on Experimental Fashion: Performance Art, Carnival and the Grotesque Body.107 She describes Margiela as the designer for whom the term ‘deconstruction’ fashion was coined.108 While exploring experimental fashion with the aid of Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the ‘grotesque,’ she offers an extensive analysis on Margiela’s enlarged collection, which informed her argument that there is a parallel between the designer’s “play with the function of clothes and accessories” and “Derrida’s refusal of closure and stable

101 Barbara Vinken, Fashion Zeitgeist: Trends and cycles in the fashion system, 143. 102 Ibid., 28-29. 103 Ibid., 35. 104 Ibid.,139. 105 Ibid.,141. 106 Ibid.,143. 107 Granata, Experimental Fashion: Performance Art, Carnival and the Grotesque Body, 74. 108 Ibid.

16 meaning”.109 She concludes her analysis arguing that the label’s altered clothes question the normative body of fashion.110 Nevertheless, the philosophy of deconstruction has not only been used to unpack the meaning of experimental fashion. Its application to fashion has also been under critique. In the essay “Deconstruction in contemporary fashion design: Analysis and Critique,” fashion scholar Agata Zborowska points to the consequences of this trend, arguing that “deconstruction cannot […] pertain to all phenomena that point to stereotypes, cliches and culturally entrenched ways of thinking”.111 She notes that the fashion system embraces its critique and turns it into a product instead of dealing with it. This constitutes a paradox, as the trends that defined the era of ‘postfashion’ are “transformed into a recognizable style, becoming a part of the fashion system”.112 Nevertheless, she admits that the connection of Derrida’s application in the field of fashion made a “critical operation aimed against stabilized notions” possible.113 In order to explore the Tabi boots, I will thus draw on this framework to explore how this resistance of the norm, inherent in a deconstructive design-approach, may affect the wearer.

Fashion and Affect In The Fashioned Body, Joanne Entwistle offers a new framework for studying fashion and dress with the body in its center. While offering an extensive review of how fashion has been examined so far, she outlines the gap that arose as the body has been left out of these discussions. She proposes a reading of dress not merely as an object, but as an “embodied activity and one that is embedded within social relations”.114 In order to grasp the complex movements that constitute this practice, she draws on structuralism and phenomenology, which allow her to understand the body as situated in a social context and in relation to the dress, as an embodied experience.115 Thereupon, she constructs a framework that allows for an analysis of the everyday dress as a situated bodily practice. Although the body is central to this concept, the ‘affect’ that a garment might have on the wearer and the feelings that arise when the clothes touch the body, are excluded from this approach. Ruggerone acknowledges the importance of Entwistle’s “powerful attempt” to produce a theory of dress that looks at the various forces that

109 Ibid., 80. 110 Ibid., 82. 111 Agata Zborowska, “Deconstruction in contemporary fashion design: Analysis and critique”, International Journal of Fashion Studies 2, no. 2 (October 2015). 112 Ibid. 113 Ibid. 114 Joanne Entwistle, The Fashioned Body, 10. 115 Ibid., 12.

17 constitute the experiences of the everyday dress.116 Nevertheless, she argues that this lens fails to incorporate “the affective practical experience” of the body.117 She pledges for the analysis of a “feeling of being dressed” to which she refers as a conceptualization of the relation between the subject and the object that is dictated by our subconsciousness.118 What Sophie Woodward offers in her book on Why Women Wear What They Wear is a ‘back stage’ understanding of the dressed body that she gains through ethnographic studies in which she focuses on the private moment in which women choose what to wear.119 The scholar strives to understand the underlying motives of these women as these may tell us more about issues at a macro-level “such as issues of individuality and conformity, ambivalence, body image, the fashion ideal, and anxiety”.120 Woodward focuses on an element that she misses in the literature on clothing and fashion – the study of the choices women make in their privacy “of creating ones public appearance”.121 She provides the reader with rich accounts of the women’s thoughts and feelings while standing in their bedroom closet and deciding on what to put on for particular occasions. The way she describes the thoughts and feelings of these women while choosing their outfits is based on the belief that ‘the feeling of getting dressed’ is an actively chosen one, that clothes are means of representations from which the women chose to create the ‘self’ they want to be in that particular moment. What is not reflected in this approach is that clothes can be chosen on its ‘affective’ basis, through the way the material feels on our skin or the way we feel when we go out, wearing a particular outfit. In “How Do You Dress a Body Without Organs? Affective Fashion and Nonhuman Becoming” Stephen D. Seely fills this gap by exploring the bodily transformations that fashion provokes as its “affective dimensions”.122 He connects this affective dimension with the notion of becoming, drawing on the writings of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. This connection informs his argument that affective fashion is one that provokes our body to transform, to “become otherwise”.123 Throughout his attempt to explore these dimensions, he proposes the argument that all clothing, whether they are regular pieces or haute couture, inhabit this ability to transform. The line of distinction that he draws between “normal clothing” and “affective fashion” relies on the latter striving to “capture this affective capacity and maximize it in order

116 Ruggerone, “The Feeling of Being Dressed: Affect Studies and the Clothed Body”, 577. 117 Ibid. 118 Ibid., 586. 119 Sophie Woodward, Why Women Wear What They Wear (Oxford: Berg, 2007), 2. 120 Ibid., 3. 121 Ibid., 2. 122 Seely, “How Do You Dress a Body Without Organs? Affective Fashion and Nonhuman Becoming”, 251. 123 Ibid.

18 to locate the lines of nonhuman becoming inherent in all bodies”.124 He examines the designs of Alexander McQueen, Rei Kawakubo, and Hussein Chalayan, arguing that, through their designs, they ask what fashion can do “if it is not tethered to a normative image of the human body”.125 Thus, he defines affective fashion as one that leads to transformation, that opens the body to its capability to become.126 Although Seely theorizes the impact of affective fashion, his analysis is based on visual material and not concerned with the tactile experience, from which this effect might arise. Philosopher Iris Marion Young offers an analysis on the relation between an item and the wearer that relies on the body and particularly on the sense of touch. In her essay on “breasted experience,” Young states that “an epistemology spoken from a feminine subjective might privilege touch rather than sight,” as the one who touches has to be close, in opposition to the gazer who can look from afar.127 She notes that touching differentiates and takes pleasure in different textures.128 Therefore, she criticizes the bra for partly functioning “as a barrier to touch”, interpreting the brassier as an object of restriction, as the “women’s mode of being surely differs depending on whether her chest is open to touch, moving in the world, or confined and bordered”.129 In her analysis, she not only theorizes the touch but also relies on it as a tool to gain insights into the relation between body and object. All of these scholars acknowledge that the body is of importance and has to be moved to the center of attention when studying dress. However, only Young focus on the literal moment when these two, the body and the dress, come together through the touch. The endeavors to examine the relation between items and wearers while relying on tactility have been limited, although, as art and design theorist Llewllyn Negrin notes, particular garments are significant in their capacities to produce certain modes of bodily demeanor.130

124 Ibid. 125 Ibid., 261. 126 Ibid. 127 Iris Marion Young, On Female Body Experience: “Throwing like a Girl” and Other Essays (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 81. 128 Ibid. 129 Ibid., 83. 130 Llewellyn Negrin, “Maurice Merleau-Ponty: The Corporeal Experience of Fashion”, in Thinking through fashion, A Guide to Key Theorists, edited by Agnés Rocamora and Anneke Smelik (London, New York: I.B. Tauris, 2016), 115.

Outline

This thesis is concerned with exploring the Tabi boots and how their characteristics affect the wearer. This focus shall be examined in two chapters. The first chapter is concerned with an object-based study of a pair of Tabi boots. The analysis will be set in the framework of ‘deconstruction’ to understand the characteristics of the boot. Throughout this study, I will draw on other materials, such as journalistic texts and images of the fashion show as well as the boots in digital archives, while staying open to other theoretical inquiries to further contextualize the object. Doing so, I will begin to explore the question how the characteristics of the boots do affect the wearers and their perception of the self. In the second part of the analysis, this question will be discussed in-depth. Throughout this analysis, I will be particularly attentive to the feeling of wearing the boots and draw on tools proposed by affect theory to contextualize these. In the second chapter, the focus will be on the wearers of the Tabi boots. I will interpret the semi-structured interviews, which I conduct with six owners of a pair of Tabi boots. Throughout this analysis, I strive to understand how the characteristics of the boots affect them. Furthermore, the analysis will be concerned with exploring the Tabi boots’ capacity to transform the wearer, as ‘deconstructive fashion’ has been assigned with the capacity to introduce novelty and reject the norm. In the conclusion, I will draw on findings from both chapters in order to answer this question.

Figure 1: Tabi boots in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Photographer: Angelika Watta

Chapter 1: Exploring the Tabi boots

In the review of Margiela’s first fashion show, the Tabi boots have been described as “bizarre,” while a journalist at Vogue noted how her colleague told her that just looking at her feet made her “physically sick”.131 These reactions seem to indicate that just a closer look on the construction of the Tabi boot is enough to provoke strong reactions that result in dividing opinions. In order to explore the construction and its characteristics, I will conduct an object- based analysis relying on the method proposed by Prown. Doing so, I will furthermore include the aspect of comparison that Fleming proposes in his model to study artifacts.132 Thus, I will begin the exploration with a black velvet pair of Tabi boots that I own and move on to other reformulations of the Tabi boot to gain a greater understanding of which details can be found in every Tabi interpretation and which are therefore, essential parts of its design language. The combination of these methods is one suggested in Valerie Steele’s article “A Museum of Fashion Is More Than a Clothes-Bag”, in which she offers an object analysis that draws on aspects of both models which leads to a fruitful analysis of the artifact she examines.133 My choice to explore the Tabi shoes with the actual object in focus is furthermore inspired by the material. A closer look at the brand and how it positions itself, reveals the ambition to draw the attention of the viewer to the item. In a time when the brand’s marketing strategy relied on the fashion designer taking center stage, the founder and head designer Martin Margiela refused to follow the footsteps of his contemporaries. As of now, only a handful of pictures and videos are recorded of his persona. Interviews are not given by the designer himself, but always in the ‘we’-form, in which, instead of a single person, the design team of the label answers the questions.134 The label itself explained this seclusion with the following words: “The withdrawal of a designer’s profile creates a space that the garments may fill.”135 The austere privacy of the designer is not the only tendency through which we can observe the label’s longing for keeping the attention on the objects. A look on the catwalk of Maison Margiela exposes this desire in its most discernible manner. While the fashion of the 1980s come with the rise of distinguishable supermodels such as Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, and Linda Evangelista, who occupied the runways of Versace, Chanel, and Dolce

131 Johnson-Wheeler, “Why Margiela’s Tabi Boots Are Still Dividing Opinion, 30 Years On.” 132 Fleming, “Artifact Study: A Proposed Model”, 157. 133 Steele, “A Museum of Fashion is More than a Clothes Bag.” 134 Susannah Frankel, Visionaries: Interviews with Fashion Designers (California: V & A Publications, 2005), 34.; Dean Mayo Davies, “Maison Martin Margiela: clinical precision.”, Dazed Digital, 23rd January 2013, https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/15478/1/maison-martin-margiela-clinical-precision. 135 Brenda Polan and Roger Tredre, The Great Fashion Designers (Oxford, New York: Berg, 2009), 230.

Gabbana, the models in Margiela’s shows wore masks under which their faces and hair were hidden. Anonymous, just as the designer, the viewer was forced to focus on the piece, instead of the person displaying it. The unusual spectacles, at which endings, the designer resisted to appear after the first few shows, will be given further space in this exploration. Another aspect of the brand’s design language that seems to be in line with the quest for letting the clothes speak, is the logo of the brand. The first label of the fashion house was “a scrap of muslin inscribed with no name”.136 In an interview, Margiela’s business partner Jenny Meirens states that making a nameless calling card represented the belief in the inherent quality of the design, which is why they agreed to add the four white stitches to the garments that were only visible on the outside.137 From 1997 on, the designer introduced a trademark consisting of different numbers, standing in for different categories of clothes.138 On the outside of the garment, in the place where the internal label is sewn, white stitching is visible on all pieces, instead of an emblem with the name of the brand. No lettering, no distractions. Concluding an analysis of the label’s collection consisting of recycled, re-cut and remade clothes, Vinken states: “In the process, he wins for his fashion something which is per definition foreign to fashion, something which was exclusively reserved to the artwork: the fascination of the single piece.”139 In line with the material at hand, I thus begin this analysis with the single piece in focus. 140

Describing

The first stage of the artifact study is concerned with its description. To unpack the object, I will first record the elements the boot is composed of before moving on to focus on the details in particular.141

Seeing the boots The boots examined here have a cylindrical, 8cm high block heel. The total height of the shoe is 23cm, the length shall be 24.5cm. The toe box of the shoe is divided.

136 Ibid. 137 Susannah Frankel, “The Woman Behind Margiela,” New York Times, February 6, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/06/t-magazine/jenny-meirens-margiela- interview.html?mtrref=www.google.com&assetType=PAYWALL. 138 Polan and Tredre, The Great Fashion Designers, 230. 139 Vinken, Fashion Zeitgeist: Trends and cycles in the fashion system, 143. 140 Due to my long-lasting interest in the Tabi boots, I already studied this object in a pre-study. 141 Prown, “Mind in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method”, 6-7.

This division is 3.5cm long and makes up the whole toe box of the shoe. Between the heel and the shaft, there is a 1.5cm high heel cap. The metal hook closure at the inner side of the shaft reaches from the heel cap to the top line. There are five hooks with a spacing of 1cm in between. The black velvet material next to the hook closure is flipped and sewn into the shaft. Individual seams stick out of the stitching on both boots. At the part where the shaft is divided, there is a hook closure on one part of the shoe and three black belts that are horizontally arranged and periodically sewn into the material on the other side, so that loops arise

Figure 2: The Velvet Tabi boots from the belts. The first two intervals from the top line of the shoe are 2cm long, while the four intervals below are 1cm long. The heel, the shafts, and the heel cap are covered in black velvet. There are visible, black seams that mark the different parts of the shoe. From the toe-split and upward reaches a stitching that seems to divide the shoe into two parts. The heel cap is also marked by a visible seam just as the closure. Above the heel, there is a white stitching. The slot between the toes is covered in black leather. The sole consists of beige leather. At the toe box of the shoe, the leather is worn- out, covered with scratches in the shape of curved lines and single spots of black can be seen. The inside of the shoe is covered in black leather, just like the inner sole.

Identified The logo of Maison Margiela is stamped in the insole six times. It consists of the number one to 23 with the number 22 encircled and the writing “Maison Margiela” and “Paris” in capital letters beneath it. The same logo is stamped into the sole with the size number 41 and the words “Vero Cuio Real Leather” beneath it. This logo can also be seen on other Margiela pieces. It refers to different categories of clothing and collections.

The number 22 stands for “a collection of shoes for women and men”.142 The white stitch at the back of the heel has emerged to be another logo of the brand. The scratches and the worn-out front part of the sole may indicate that the shoe has been worn several times with care. The previous owner probably avoided situations with a risk of damage as the rest of the shoe does not show any signs of wear and tear.

Figure 3: The Tabi sole

The form All parts of the shoes are curved, like the toe box or the cylindrical heel. There are no rough edges. The metal hook closures are also curved. The emphasis on the round is also present in the logo that incorporates the encircled number. The toe box of the shoe is divided, which is a form that is even more underlined by a black seam that separates the shoes in two parts along these lines. This stitching is only visible when looked at closely. The shoe is made up of two materials, leather and velvet. All the parts that are visible when the shoe is worn consist of black velvet, like the heel, the shafts, and the toe-box. All the other elements that are only visible when the shoe is looked at in detail are also black, but instead of velvet, they are made of black leather Figure 4: The Velvet Tabi boot from the side

142 Scarkett Kilcooley-O’Halloran, “The Meaning of Margiela”, Vogue Magazine, October 18, 2012, https://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/the-meaning-of-margiela.

24 like the insole and the gap between the toes. The one part that is not black is the beige sole of the shoe and the metal hook closures, which are both the elements that are usually unseen when the boot is worn.

Deducing

The next stage of Prown’s methodology is concerned with the relation between the object and the wearer.143 For this step, the boots were touched and worn to create a link between the item, its “represented world with the perceiver’s world of existence and experience”.144 In his methodology, Prown asks for “unstrained interpretations of the evidence elicited by the description”.145 Throughout the last step of ‘deduction,’ which is concerned with the emotional response to the garment, I will move beyond this objective interpretation – and draw on the tool of “emotional recollection”, which Ruggerone suggests as an instrument to capture the affective dimension of the dress.146 Accordingly, I will allow myself to express my feelings when touching and wearing the boots in an unstructured way and with the aid of pictures and memories that come to my mind.147 I propose the argument that this deviation will be necessary to explore my research question; to analyze the relation between the shoes and their wearers and to capture the effect of the Tabi boots. Young draws on this tool when investigating the relationship between women and the brassier while, albeit not in the context of the dress, Mark Peterson describes his feelings and thoughts during a massage to explore the “affecting touch”.148 He argues that in the combination of a “phenomenologically descriptive method to an ethnographic encounter with touching, we are concerned […] with a rich description of feeling”.149 Following his argument, my ‘emotional response’ will follow a phenomenological account.

143 Prown, “Mind in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method”, 9. 144 Ibid., 8. 145 Ibid. 146 Ruggerone, “The Feeling of Being Dressed: Affect Studies and the Clothed Body”, 587. 147 Ibid. 148 Paterson, The senses of Touch: Haptics, Affects and Technologies, 169. 149 Ibid.,165.

Touching the boots The first part of this stage is concerned with recording the “sensory experience of the object”.150 Therefore, I hold the shoes with both of my hands, touch them with my fingers and look at them from different perspectives. When the shoe is lifted with one hand, one can feel that the weight lays in the heel. It is the heaviest part of the shoe. The velvet parts of the shoe feel soft but stable. When I touch the material with my hands, it does not change its look or color. When I turn the shoes in my hands, the black velvet changes slightly, like a shimmer when direct light is shining onto it. When running with the hands over the shoe, one can feel the seams at the closure and the one that goes up from the toe-box to the top line. The seam that can be felt most is the one that marks the heel cap. It feels like the shoe and the heel are covered in the same material; they go into each other. The stitching is the only thing that feels uneven when touching the shafts, it stands out and one feels that it is sewn into the material. When running with the fingers over the toe box of the shoe, one can feel the part and one can also sense that the divide is marked by another material. When I try to put my fingers in the gap, there is resistance. Touching the sole, the logo that is stamped into it can be felt. Nevertheless, the sole also feels soft while the worn-out sole on the front part feels uneven. Touching the sole with my hands, I can actively sense the toe-box, which feels like a disruption of what I am used to when touching a shoe.

Trying on The next step in the process of ‘deduction’ is to engage intellectually with the item to see “what it does and how it does it”.151 For this step, I will put on the shoes on and walk a few steps in them. When I put on the boots, I wear socks and my feet are stopped. The separated toe box detains my feet from slipping into the shoe as I usually do. Therefore, I take off my socks and try it again. My toes get separated as I slip into the shoe and adjust to the construction of the boots. When I move my toes inside the shoe, I can visibly widen the tab-slot. The hooks are easy to close, sliding into the loops without any sounds. The inside material feels soft on my skin. Usually, I do not wear heels very often. Therefore, I am hesitant when it comes to the height of the heel asking myself if I am going to be able to stand and walk in them properly. When I get up and walk around the room, I immediately begin to compare this feeling to the

150 Prown, “Mind in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method”, 9. 151 Ibid., 8.

26 few times in which I wore shoes with a heel. In comparison to my memories of these situations, I feel more stable in the boots. After a few minutes of walking around in the shoes in my room, I imagine how it would be to walk with them outside, and I feel like it would be more comfortable than in the heels I wore until now. While taking the first steps, my eyes wander to the toe-box repeatedly. I look at the shoes in the mirror, turn around and see how soft the material looks when I have them on. On the front of the boots and at the shaft with the hook closure, folds have formed themselves. When I put the shoes off, these folds are still visible.

Feeling the boots In the last step of ‘Deduction’, I am capturing my individual, emotional response to wearing the object outside. Prown stresses that this step is sufficient to understand one’s own cultural bias, which often remains undetected throughout the description and is “the most deeply rooted cultural assumptions”.152 Furthermore, I will enrich my response by recollecting my emotions of wearing the boots outside to capture their affective dimension. The moment I tried to slip into the shoes and realized that they can only be worn without or with special socks that separate the great toe from the rest of the toes feels new. Even as the toe-gap is common in Japan and repeated itself through history in different shapes and forms, the element did not reach Europe in a great fashion. Therefore, the emphasis that I lay on the gap between the toes throughout the descriptive stage, that I actively “feel” while touching the shoe and wearing them, and that will further be emphasized in the following stage, result from my cultural preoccupation and the sense of newness that is connected to them. I wear the boots outside for the first time, and I feel very aware of myself. Usually, I leave the house thinking about the time the bus arrives, what I have to do today, if I have my keys. Usually, I let my mind wander, but this time I cannot stop thinking about what I wear. It is not necessarily a feeling of discomfort but rather a constant awareness of myself that begins to exhaust me. This feeling becomes more intense when I pass by other people. When these people are older than me, I assume that they are not familiar with the shape of the shoe or the brand and start to wonder what they think. Simultaneously, I remind myself that most of them do not care and that, even if they do, I should not. Repeating this thought in my head makes me feel more comfortable, and at the same time, I feel more self-confident. Although I try to not overestimate the effect that I might have on others I feel like a walking provocation, which immediately reflects in my thoughts. I am thinking of how I will react to people starring or

152 Ibid., 9.

27 commenting on the boots. As I am in Sweden, not able to speak Swedish, I would probably not understand comments anyways and I do not expect that anyone would really comment on my clothes here. Nevertheless, these thoughts come to my mind. I prepare the response in my head. I would probably explain that they are a design by Martin Margiela, a fashion designer from Belgium and that the divided toe-box is adapted from the traditional Tabi sock, which is a construction from Japan. I begin to compare how I feel wearing the boots here, where I am a foreigner, to wearing them in Germany. I imagine wearing the boots going to the supermarket that is down the street from my parents’ house. I assume that the people starring in my home- city would be more immediate, more direct and I instantly feel a sense of anger that blends in with a feeling of stubbornness. “You don’t like it, and I wear it anyway because I can wear whatever I want to, and I don’t care,” is the thought that repeats itself in my head. I think of the messages I received when I posted a photo of the Tabi boots on my Instagram account, messages full of excitement, saying “wow,” “so cool that you have them,” and various combinations of smileys reached me after the post. Everyone who messaged me has an interest in fashion. They either work in fashion, study it or post their outfits or they are familiar with the work of Margiela. While I walk through the snowy and muddy streets of Stockholm to the bus station, trying to choose the path that will most likely preserve the boots from any damage, I realize that I have been thinking of my hometown all the way to the bus station. The feeling of stubbornness that I felt while thinking of the supermarket situation reminds me of how I felt wearing certain outfits during school. I remember when I wore black jeans with a cropped long sleeve and a leo-print on it, over that a rose-colored fake fur coat, while waiting for the teacher to open the classroom and someone commented: “She and her outfits again.” It also reminded me of a situation when I wore a black and white fake fur jacket with a black skirt, and the teacher, stepping into the classroom said that I never cease to surprise him with my outfits. All these situations come to my mind with a slight feeling of discomfort connected with this stubbornness and a sense of standing up for myself. Although others repeatedly commented on my outfits, this never made me feel uncomfortable wearing them. It made me feel confident.153

153 When I think of these situations, I think of them as moments where I felt like my truest self during high school.

Comparing the Tabi

Figure 5: Tabi boots from the Archives of the RISD Museum, the Fashion Institute of Technology, the Museum of Science and Arts in Sydney, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The act of comparing the object to other items with a similar construction is not explicitly pointed out in the methodology by Prown, but is instead emphasized by Fleming, who notes that one “might compare the given artifact with other artifacts made by the same craftsman”.154 To deduce differences and similarities, I looked at five pairs of Tabi boots, which were released over the past 30 years and stored in the archives of museums around the world. A pair of women’s tabi boots from 1999 is saved in the archives of the RISD Museum in Rhode Island, which is also accessible online.155 The silver, seemingly shimmering boot is presented through three photographs. The first one is showing the Tabi boots from the front and the side, while the second one is displaying the boots from behind, the backside of the heel in its center. The third picture showcases the shoes from the front again. The divided toe-box is visible on the first and third picture, just as the stitching that divides the shoe into two parts. The boots seem to have a distressed texture, as there are visible scratches on the leather. What cannot be seen in these photographs is the sole of the boots, the inner lining nor the closure,

154 Fleming, “Artifact Study: A Proposed Model”, 157. 155 “Maison Martin Margiela Women’s tabi boots ca.1999”, RISD Museum, accessed April 19, 2021, https://risdmuseum.org/art-design/collection/womens-tabi-boots-2010242.

29 which are details that I have noted while looking at and touching my pair of Tabi boots. As I am not able to turn or touch the boots and this information is not provided in the description, it remains unclear if these have been intended by the designer or if they are a sign of wear and tear. The description of the object provides the viewer with details on the materials and techniques with short keywords, such as “paint”, “leather”, and “metal”.156 Following the previous object study, the word “metal” may refer to the hook closure. The technique is described with the keyword “painted”, nevertheless provided with no further explanation, but in the book Martin Margiela, The Women’s Collection 1989-200, the Tabi shoes and other pieces such as jeans and jackets in the Fall/Winter Show 1999-2000 are described as “painted in an antique silver color”.157 The label ‘Vero Cuoio/Made in Italy/ 40’ is also stamped on the bottom of the sole. As there is no picture of the sole, this information is only provided in the description of the boots. A similar construction is archived by the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. The construction dates back to 1989, the year in which Maison Martin Margiela presented their first fashion show.158 The boots consist of denim, paint, and leather. A picture of the boots shows that they are covered in white paint and the words “Martin Margiela 1989” are written on the sole of the boot. Nevertheless, one cannot deduce which parts of the boots are made from denim, neither from the description nor the pictures. The online archive of the FIT has another pair of Tabi boots which was introduced in Fall 2003.159 It is a high heel boot that probably reaches over the knee. The description says that it is made of leather and has been gifted to the museum. Looking at the one picture provided in the archive, the color seems to be dark brown. The toe-box is divided just as the other Tabi boots described here. Nevertheless, the division between the toes seems to be more defined, widened. A seam reaches from the split-toe onto the shaft of the boots, dividing the boots into two parts. Just as with the other Tabi variations examined previously, the heels of the boots are cylindrical. Nevertheless, this variation differs from other pairs as there is no meta hook closure but instead, a black zipper reaching from the heel to the top line of the boots.

156 Ibid. 157 Samson, The Women’s Collections 1989-2009 Martin Margiela, 86. 158 “Boots”, Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, accessed April 15, 2021, http://fashionmuseum.fitnyc.edu/view/objects/asitem/search$0040/1/dynasty-desc?t:state:flow=03b0ad5a-06aa- 4a0f-b478-f19a3a2c6077. 159 “Boots”, Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, accessed April 15, 2021, http://fashionmuseum.fitnyc.edu/view/objects/asitem/search$0040/2/dynasty-desc?t:state:flow=13143e75-ad30- 452b-b442-c447908a4c59.

The online archive of the Museum of Science and Arts in Sydney provides their items with a more detailed description. In their online database, one can find a Tabi boot by Martin Margiela from 1995.160 The boots are described as a “pair of women’s ankle boots of cemented construction, with divided toe and round stacked and painted heel”. Furthermore, it is noted that the boot is made of “leather uppers in 2 pieces”, lined in blue cotton while the inside “appears to be navy blue leather”, which is painted white. 161 Nevertheless, this physical description cannot be fully comprehended by looking at the object itself, as there are only two pictures available of the boots. One displays a close-up of the slot that divides the toe-box of the boots, and another photograph is taken from the side and does not display the hook closure nor the inner lining of the boot. This construction and the pairs stored in RISD Museum and The Museum at FIT share the same material and technique, as the materials – leather and denim – are painted with white and silver colors. A “pair of women’s sneakers” by Martin Margiela is archived in the Fashion Collection of The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, which is openly accessible online.162 There is only one picture of the blue flat sneaker with a low resolution, which makes it difficult to observe any details or compare the object with the one at hand. The date of introduction is noted with “late 20th-early 21st century” so the observer is not provided with the exact information about when the garment was first presented.163 Nevertheless, it is stated in the description that the “blue/green canvas sneaker” with the split-toe has been purchased in 2007 on eBay. The material is said to be cotton twill, metal, and rubber but it is neither observable nor noted, which parts of the boots are made of these materials. What one can observe from the picture is that the split toe defines the whole toe-box. Where the toe-box ends, the laces of the sneakers begin. The pair of Tabi boots archived in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art seems to be the most similar to the pair I own. The measurements indicate that this boot has the same shape and construction as my pair. It has been introduced in 2003 and gifted to the museum. The material is described as “patent leather, metal tabs and cotton cord”.164 While the pair of boots I own is covered in black velvet, this Tabi boot comes in shimmering leather that seems to reflect the outside on its surface. The first picture is taken from the front and the split-toe just as the hook closure as well as the cylindrical black heel are visible. The second picture is taken

160 “Pair of women’s boots by Martin Margiela”, Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, accessed April 15, 2021, https://collection.maas.museum/object/153228. 161 Ibid. 162“Pair of ‚Tabi’ Boots”, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, accessed April 15, https://collections.lacma.org/node/212294. 163 Ibid. 164 Ibid.

31 from the same perspective while the boot is positioned slightly differently. The third picture is a close-up of the hook closure. The leather next to the hook closure is flipped and sewn into the shaft. The stitching is thus visibly on the outside. The fourth picture shows a close-up of the slot that defines the toe-box. The material between the slot seems to be the same as used for the rest of the boots, which differentiates the boot from the Tabi shoes I own. The stitching is on the outside of the boot, the seams that hold the single leather pieces of which the boot is composed, together, can be seen. The stitches go from the toe-box upward and, just as the boots examined previously, leave the impression of a dualism. The object-study of the Tabi boot variations through the screen, as stored and made accessible in the online archives of several museums, brought insights that are twofold. It showed that all of the boots share some characteristics. The split-toe is the element that defines their silhouettes. The visible seams, particularly the one reaching from the split-toe to the top line of the boot, just as the cylindrical heel, are other common characteristics that they share. Furthermore, the integration of the split-toe into different shapes, the integration of the foreign into the familiar, began in 1988 and has been continued over the past 30 years. Nevertheless, other characteristics such as the seams at the hook closure, the inner lining of the boots, or the sole, could not be seen on the pictures provided in the archives, neither have these elements been extensively described. What the exploration through the screen further misses is the ‘touch’ which is part of the methodology to study objects as defined by Prown and Fleming. The object is reduced to words and pictures, rather than being in the world, as it cannot be touched and thus, felt. Not being able to look at the details that were observed while holding the boots in my hands, the Tabi variations could only be compared on the surface. The forms, main elements, and materials could be described and compared, while the way they feel, the way the tab slot is integrated into the boots, their weight, how the material changes when touched or looked at from different perspectives, is lacking in this examination. Looked at through the screen, this way of studying the garment seems to reduce the active capacity of the boot, seems to deny that the boot not only “is” but “does.” Research through the flat screen has shown to be an alternative that is only suitable as an entry, while not being able to capture what lays in-between, the relation between perceiver and perceived, as the screen constitutes a barrier, the medium a limitation. Simultaneously, the lack of detailed information provided with the pictures forces one to move to other materials to obtain the information needed. The attention is moved away from the object, concentrating on the surrounding, the facts, the mind, leading to a division of mind and body, as the latter is

32 excluded, neglected. When studying an object, when exploring the feeling of being dressed, the object and the ‘I’ remain in the center proved to be vital and the connection between these two has to be made through the touch – with the fingers when putting the garment on, when holding the object in one’s hands. Without the touch connecting the ‘I’ and the item, the feeling is distanced and isolated, without which the ‘affect’ cannot be grasped nor measured.

Speculating

I will now move to the last part of this object-analysis, in which I theorize the findings from my close study of the Tabi boots and the feelings that arose while wearing them. Prown describes the stage of speculation as one where the analysis moves to the “mind of the perceiver”.165 Throughout this stage, creative imagining, the development, and connections of theories are desired.166 Thus, I will not only draw on the framework of deconstruction but stay open to other theoretical inquiries that the study of the object may lead me to.

Reflecting the system

When I touched the boots with my hands and my fingers ran over its surface, I paused at the divided toe box that felt different and foreign to me. This toe-gap dates back to the 15th century when the tabi was part of the ordinary costume of men and women in Japan.167 In Western societies, this construction was and still is unusual, which may explain why it felt different to me and why my eyes repeatedly wandered to this detail when looking at the boots’ reflection in the mirror. It may also explain why the Tabi boots have repeatedly been associated with “goat’s hooves” and described as “goat shoes” in the press.168 However, Margiela did not merely copy the tabi sock but added a cylindrical block heel to his first interpretation, which – in contrast to the toe-gap – is a common element of shoes, estimated from a Western perspective. This fusion of a foreign, historical reference and a contemporary element leads to emotions of confusion and understanding at the same time. When I walked down the street to the bus station, my feelings were simultaneously swaying between discomfort and

165 Prown, “Mind in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method”, 10. 166 Ibid. 167 A.D. Howell Smith, Guide to the Japanese textiles Part 2, Textile fabrics (London: Printed under the authority of H.M. Stationery Off, 1919), 7. 168 Ellen Scott, “Margiela’s Tabi boots, which make your feet look like goat’s hooves, are predicted to be a big trend in 2019”, Metro, January 8, 2019, https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/08/margielas-tabi-boots-make-feet-look- like-goats-hooves- predicted-big-trend-2019-8320821/.

33 stubbornness, between distinction and belonging. This dualism aligns with the characteristics that George Simmel assigned to the system of fashion. The German theorist describes how the whole society is driven by the need for distinction and adaption at the same time. Fashion, he insists, is no exception to this phenomenon and therefore inhabits “the double function of holding a given social circle together and at the same time closing it off from others”.169 In “The Philosophy of Fashion”, Simmel argues that studying the history of dress is a study of the attempts to fuse these opposing tendencies perfectly according “to the conditions of the prevailing individual and social culture”.170 The Tabi boots may be read as a materialization of the mechanisms that Simmel assigned to fashion. Imitation is materialized through the block heel that Margiela added to the boots, while distinction arises through the toe-gap, an uncommon element and a historical reference at the same time. The notions of imitation as trend and distinction as ‘standing out’ can be observed in the way a student from London Parson’s School, interviewed by Sammi Fisher for The New School Free Press, describes the Tabi boot: “I think it’s always been trendy, but I guess especially big at Parsons because it is an art school known for fashion and the students here all want to feel different and strive to go for a certain image.”171 The statement of another student, interviewed at Parsons School emphasizes this aspect: “Since these shoes are such a unique and unusual shape, I feel like people need to have an understanding of the artistic background of how they came about [to appreciate them]”.172 This claim further aligns with what Woodward and Fisher describe as “requisite knowledge and cultural competence” to select the right clothes and wear them properly, which they define as a condition for something or someone to be in fashion.173 The dualism that seems incorporated in the object further reflects in how the Tabi boot is perceived. In the press, the boots were described as “deeply paradoxical”, as they are being admired by the avant-garde and at the same time, seen as bizarre by those who are more conventional in their fashion sense.174 This perception refers to the state of being in fashion as one that requires a negotiation not only between one’s sense of style but also between the

169 Georg Simmel, “The Philosophy of Fashion”, in Fashion: Critical and Primary Sources The Twentieth Century to Today, ed. Peter McNeil (Oxford: Berg, 2009), 16. 170 Ibid. 171 Sammi Fisher, “Tabi Boots Take Over Parsons”, Free Press, December 18, 2018, http://www.newschoolfreepress.com/2018/12/18/tabi-boots-take-over-parsons/. 172 Ibid. 173 Woodward and Fisher, “Fashioning through materials: Material culture, materiality and processes of materialization”, 8. 174 Leslie Zhang, “Delicately Heinous: The Unlikely Success of the Margiela Tabi.” Heroine, October 13, 2017, https://www.heroine.com/the-editorial/margiela-tabi.

34 immediate social environment as well as the fashion system.175 As people have a different social environment, a different perception of the fashion system, and a different sense of style, this negotiation leads to various definitions of what is “in fashion” at the moment.176 The students of Parson School have the same social environment, and because of their studies, a similar perception of the fashion system. This is what makes the boots so popular in this context. The negotiation can be further observed in the feelings and thoughts that arose while wearing the boots outside. While I felt distanced and different from the people I encountered in the streets, wondering what they might think about my boots and the toe-gap in particular, I felt comfortable sharing pictures of the boots online, where I am surrounded by people who are familiar with Margiela’s work and the history of the boots. The dualistic character that Simmel assigned to fashion can be further linked to the way the Tabi boots have been reinterpreted and transformed over the years. The tab-slot has been integrated into sandals, over-knee heels, and silver shimmering boots, archived in the collections of several museums around the world. In January 2021, a cooperation between the sportswear brand Reebok and Maison Margiela has been announced with the picture of a classic Reebok sneaker with a divided toe-box.177 These adoptions to prevailing trends, such as sportswear, emphasize how the mechanisms of imitation, materialized through the varying shape of the shoe, and distinction, materialized through the toe-gap, are at play in the construction of the shoe. However, the recurrence of the same element in all these Tabi variations as well as its constant change merges into a formula that seems to reject its overcoming. Simmel states that “every growth of a fashion drives it to its doom because it thereby cancels out its distinctiveness”.178 Although the item can be described as being “fashionable”, if we follow the definition proposed by Woodward and Fisher, it reemerges every season since 1989. This resistance – the resistance to drive down its doom – leads to the notion of deconstruction.

175 Woodward and Fisher, “Fashioning through materials: Material culture, materiality and processes of materialization”, 8. 176 Ibid. 177 “Maison Margiela and Reebok Reveal Classic leather Tabi in ‘Bianchetto’,” Hypebeast, January 14, 2021, https://hypebeast.com/2021/1/maison-margiela-reebok-classic-leather-tabi-bianchetto. 178 Simmel, “The Philosophy of Fashion”, 19.

Deconstructing the norm

When Harold Koda and Richard Martin traced and contextualized the tendencies of contemporary fashion design in 1993, they noted how in the late 20th century, “popular culture has repeatedly slashed, spoiled and distressed clothing to render it of refurbished vitality”.179 The term ‘deconstructive fashion’ has been used to describe unusual handling of clothes, their construction and production, and as an approach that is reflected in the materials used, the garments’ form, and the techniques that have been applied to create them.180 These techniques are further visible in the construction of the Tabi boots. Margiela took a traditional element of the Japanese culture to Paris where he reinterpreted it in a new context, using a different material. While the traditional jika-tabis were “construed from lightweight cotton and their soles composed of a pliable yet sturdy natural rubber”, Margiela chose black leather, a comparatively harsh material for his interpretation, and added a cylindrical heel to the shoe.181 In the way the Tabi boots are a combination of elements from different historical and cultural contexts, they display the most literal sense in which the term ‘deconstruction’ has been used.

Inside out While the seam that emphasizes the dual form of the shoe can only be seen when looking at it closely, the stitching next to the hook closure is visible and can actively be felt when running with the hands over the boots. Individual threads stand out from the seam, which leaves the impression as if this detail has been left unfinished. Making visible what is usually unseen has been identified as a constant in Margiela’s design language. When analyzing the ‘magnified collection’, Granata notes the visible seams in the garments and interprets them as the exposure of the “illusion of perfection and closure”.182 Furthermore, Vinken examines how the designer’s clothes, with the modelling pins and threads, turned outward, look like they are still displayed on a mannequin, exposing and turning inside out “all the tricks of the tailor’s trade that are usually so perfectly concealed”.183

179 Richard Martin and Harold Koda, Infra Apparel (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art/Harry Abrams Inc.,1993), 94. 180 Antonelli and Fisher, Items: Is Fashion Modern?, 245; Gill, “Deconstruction in Fashion: The Making of Unfinished, Decomposing and Re-assembled Clothes”, 25-26. 181 Antonelli and Fisher, Items: Is Fashion Modern?, 245. 182 Granata, Experimental Fashion: Performance Art, Carnival and the Grotesque Body, 89. 183 Vinken, Fashion Zeitgeist: Trends and cycles in the fashion system, 31.

This aligns with the ideas of the philosophical concept of deconstruction “to unfold what has been folded over by and in the tradition”.184 Derrida states that he reads philosophers like Plato and Aristotle as an “analysis which tries to find out how their thinking works or does not work”.185 The way Margiela turns the seams inside out, bringing to light what holds the single pieces of the garment together, evokes a parallel to the mode of deconstructive thinking. Derrida reads the work of his predecessors “to find the tensions, the contradictions, the heterogeneity within their own corpus” while Margiela traces the tailor’s tricks to expose them, which can also be understood as a “process of analytical creation”.186 An item that looks unfinished suggests an implicit critique of the system that it operates in. Simultaneously, these unfinished parts of the shoe do not disturb the process of wearing them. When I put on the shoe, I could not sense the loose threads on my skin, and they were not hindering me in any way. Accordingly, the parts in which the garments look unfinished must have been chosen with care. Gill notes how Margiela’s designs may be read as a critique of fashion’s impossible mission to be innovative – while at the same time demonstrating “its dependence on the history of fashion”.187 Although the designer brings the process of creation to light, showing what is usually unseen, he does not disrupt the function of the item.

Uncovering the trace This critique that, at the same time, indicates respect, can be further observed in the way the traditional tab-slot is integrated into new shapes every year. The repetition of the same element may evoke a reading of critique, as it resists fashion’s striving towards innovation, towards the novel. Simultaneously, the way the toe-gap adapts to different shapes every season shows Margiela’s dependence on this system. The duality of the item and Margiela’s design language unmasks itself. His designs may therefore be understood as more than critique. The designer does not want to “destroy” the fashion system, he wants the wearer to buy and wear his clothes. Just as terms like ‘Anti Fashion’ and ‘Postfashion’ suggest a critique, this criticism can never be absolute as they are clearly positioned in a frame. Even though they are ‘anti’ and ‘post,’ they are still fashions. This criticism that is at the same time an affirmation, aligns with Derrida’s thoughts on deconstruction. The philosopher did not strive to destroy the traditions, the structures that held language, philosophy, academia, our society together, as some have

184 Caputo, “Deconstruction in a Nutshell: The Very Idea (!)”, 37. 185 Caputo, “The Villanova Roundtable, A Conversation with Jacques Derrida”, in Deconstruction in a Nutshell, A Conversation with Jacques Derrida, ed. John D. Caputo (New York: Fordham University, 1997), 9. 186 Ibid.; Richard and Koda, Infra Apparel, 94. 187 Gill, “Deconstruction in Fashion: The Making of Unfinished, Decomposing and Re-assembled Clothes”, 31.

37 misunderstood his writing. Derrida states: “Because as soon as one examines my texts, and not only mine but the texts of many people close to me, one sees that respect for the great texts, for the texts of the Greeks and of others, too, is the condition of our work.”188 Rather than with disruption, deconstructive thinking is concerned with unfolding, striving towards what seems impossible, with uncovering the “trace”. The philosopher John David Caputo explains how a deconstructive analysis does not “fall down adoringly before what is present” as this presence needs to be analyzed, criticized and deconstructed, but “affirms what is to come” as it is this affirmation that the deconstruction of the present is all about.189 Gill notes how the “trace” of fashion could therefore be the inherent remark that “allows fashion to be ‘innovative’, while at the same time as being that which ensures that it can never be innovative”.190 Therefore, the Tabi boots may be interpreted as a reflection of the dual system in which they are presented while simultaneously uncovering its trace.

Exposure The theme of disclosure is not only reflected in the details of the boots’ construction and the white stitch that appears on the outside of Margiela’s garments. Moreover, this element is present in the communication and marketing strategies of the fashion house until today. In July 2020, the label introduced a video series titled S.W.A.L.K that documents the whole process of the development of the Fall/Winter Collection.191 The 52 minutes long video, shared on YouTube, consists of numerous recorded video-calls, e-mails, artworks which inspired the designs and footage of the atelier at work. Furthermore, the fashion house started a podcast in 2018, in which the creative director of the label, John Galliano, talks about the inspiration and vision behind each artisanal collection.192 The exposure of this process and the insights that come with it are particularly noteworthy as luxury fashion usually conceals the procedures that led to its creation, as it is dependent on the values of exclusivity and mystery.193 These endeavors towards transparency can be read as a continuation of Martin Margiela’s attempts to

188 Caputo, “The Villanova Roundtable, A Conversation with Jacques Derrida”, 9. 189 Caputo, “Deconstruction in a Nutshell: The Very Idea (!)”, 41. 190 Gill, “Deconstruction in Fashion: The Making of Unfinished, Decomposing and Re-assembled Clothes”, 31. 191 Maison Margiela,“Maison Margiela Artisanal Co-Ed Collection Autumn-Winter 2020 | S.W.A.L.K”, YouTube video, 52:32, 17.07.2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCnbjRlICSQ&t=1793s. 192 Emilia Petrarca, “John Galliano’s New Podcast Is Fashion ASMR”, The Cut, June 22, 2018, https://www.thecut.com/2018/06/john-galliano-margiela-podcast.html. 193 Helena Pike, “The Luxury Brand Balancing Act”, Business of Fashion, January 18, 2016, https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/global-markets/the-luxury-brand-balancing-act.

38 uncover the process of creation, seen in the way he, for instance, included an instruction for how to make his sock-sweater at home when curating A Magazine in 2004.194 This exposure comes with a resistance to the prevailing structures in fashion, which can be traced back to the first fashion show of the label, which was held in October 1989 at the Café de la Gare in the 3rd Arrondissement of Paris. “It was an experimental tour de force, making the mainstream shows of the Paris season seem blandly conventional”, Brenda Polan and Roger Tredre write.195 Instead of presenting the collection in an illuminous scenery with a vast catwalk as it had been the norm at the time, the brand invited their guests to a nightclub, where they were greeted by an audio that was recording the sounds from backstage, where the show was prepared.196 The theme of exposure shows itself in this scene. Instead of concealing the unfinished, the sounds of the creative process, and the preparations required to organize a fashion show, are slopping over to the guests. The room is dark and when the lights turn on, “Guess I’m Fallin’ In Love” by Velvet Underground starts to play, and the first model enters the tiny stage and makes her way through the rows of seats.197 She is dressed in white, with her hair falling into her face, wearing white pants, the upper body bare and her arms covered in white gloves that are crossed over her chest, barefoot. The second model who sets her foot on the catwalk, wears the Tabi boots made of nude calfskin, creating “the illusion of a naked foot resting on a sole and a heel”.198

Faceless When the twenty-third look is presented, the attention of the guests is drawn to the boots, as they leave a red footprint on the runway that is laid out with white cotton. It is also the first look, in which the model’s face is covered with a veil.199 Vinken points to the striking contrast to other fashion houses at the time where “the models have become the absolute stars of fashion and their recognizability is immediately bankable”.200 Meanwhile, the models in the Margiela show have their faces covered with their hair and veils, which “underscored their anonymity at the very moment when fashion models were on the cusp of achieving the super star status”.201

194 “One to make at home”, A Magazine, 2021, 192-197. 195 Polan and Tredre, The Great Fashion Designers, 230. 196 Samson, The Women’s Collections 1989-2009 Martin Margiela, 8. 197 MMM Shows. “Maison Martin Margiela SS1989 (complete show).” Daily Motion, 48:00, 2017, https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5sixdc. 198 Samson, The Women’s Collections 1989-2009 Martin Margiela, 8. 199 MMM Shows. “Maison Martin Margiela SS1989 (complete show).” 200 Vinken, “The New Nude” in Maison Martin Margiela ‚20’ The exhibition” ed. Kaat Debo (Antwerp: MoMu, 2008), 18. 201 Samson, The Women’s Collections 1989-2009 Martin Margiela, 8.

The theme of invisibility that surrounded the models continued in the following runway shows, as they were wearing heavy brushstrokes or strip of opaque red and black plastic over their eyes and masks were hiding their faces.202 Covered faces have also been seen on the runway of Gareth Puth. Seely notes how the models are wearing masks over their faces. He reads this element through the lens of the “body without organs”, a concept introduced by Deleuze and Guattari. 203 The French philosophers coined this term in A Thousand Plateaus, as “a body upon which that which serves as organs […] is distributed according to crowd phenomena […] in the form of molecular multiplicities”.204 They understand the body without organs (BwO) as a site of possibilities upon which various things can unfold themselves until the body seems inseparable with these things – and this inseparability appears to be neutral. Deleuze and Guattari notice this state between the face and the body, as we are making sense of the body by looking at the face until the two seem inseparable.205 Thus, Seely interprets the concealed faces as an undoing of the “normative images of beauty, bodies, gender and humanity”, which allows for the “creative production of entirely new assemblages”.206 When the twenty-third look is presented in the Café de la Gare, and the model’s face is covered, we are left disoriented at first. Trying to make sense of the body, our view is drawn to the trace of the model’s boots as they suddenly leave red footprints on the runway. The attention of the viewer is not only challenged but redirected to the unusual shape of the foot. We are forced to transform our gaze and when we do so, it gets disrupted again as the shape of the shoe is unfamiliar and leaves us disoriented. Seely writes that these new assemblages, in which fashion provokes the body to transform is where its “affective dimension” shows itself.207 Thus, it is in this look that the ideas of deconstruction, the unusual handling of things, the exposure of the “body without organs” forces the body to transform, and, merging in the red trace on the white runway, the affective dimension of fashion comes to the fore.

202 Laird Borelli-Persson, “Maison Margiela Spring 1993 Ready-To-Wear”, Vogue, November 10, 2015, https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-1993-ready-to-wear/maison-martin-margiela.; Samson, The Women’s Collections 1989-2009 Martin Margiela, 98; Fashion Channel, “Martin Margiela Fall 2000/2001 Paris – Fashion Channel”, YouTube video, 15:47, 08.06.2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0hhCsc4GXQ&t=97.; Mad Recital, “Maison Martin Margiela Fall-Winter 1998,” YouTube video, 3:29, 07.08.2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9AICfEfHaw&t=1s. 203 Seely, “How Do You Dress a Body Without Organs?” 204 Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus Capitalism and Schizophrenia (London, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987), 30. 205 Seely, “How Do You Dress a Body Without Organs?”, 260. 206 Ibid., 261. 207 Ibid., 251.

Affective fashion

The moment my feet slide into the shoes, I can feel that something is different. There is a resistance. The divided toe-gap functions like a barrier and forces me to pull my feet out again. To wear the shoes, I have to adjust to that difference. I have to take off the socks, cut them through between the great toe and the rest of the toes or get a special pair of socks where the toe-gap is already divided. Thus, I am actively stopped from doing things as I used to do them, when sliding into the boots with my feet. The boot’s shape differs from the norm and to be able to wear it, I have to change what I usually do. This felt change begins with the moment I try the Tabi boots on and runs through the whole experience of wearing them. I do not only become aware of other people’s looks, but I also become aware of myself. As a usually hidden part of my body is suddenly emphasized, my perception of others and the perception of myself changes. The way that the boots are a product of literal deconstruction, a merge of elements that usually do not fit together, does not only expose our normative image of a shoe but exposes furthermore it’s underlying structures: the way we see – and the way we are seen by our surrounding. When deconstructing the strand of philosophy, Derrida does not only dismantle the way we privilege speech over writing, but furthermore shows how our overall way of thinking is defined by hierarchical categories. Thus, deconstructing philosophy has wider implications for our society as a whole. In a similar manner, deconstructed garments do not only make us look “different”, they do not only change the outside with different cuts and unusual constructions. Rather, they do affect our thinking and perception, as the difference between how we usually go about in the world is suddenly exposed. By making things different, we also see how things have usually been done. The boots align, may even be regarded as a product of deconstructive thinking. It is in this deconstructive approach that its affective dimension comes to the fore. The deconstructed item that refuses the norm affects us, as it forces us to rethink and reflect upon ourselves. Seely defines ‘affective fashion’ as one that “seeks to harness the body’s capacities for transformation and connection […] beyond the dominant modes of organizing and imagining bodies”.208 The ‘deconstructed’ garment forces the body to transform, forces me to pull my feet out again, to change in order to fit in. It forces me to become different as it fills me with discomfort, with stubbornness, with feelings that are usually not visible on the surface. The gap, the in-between-ness that is emphasized through its construction aligns with the

208 Ibid., 248.

Derridean concept of the “différance”. The philosopher notes that meaning is not attached to the sign or the signifier but exists in the space between these two. He writes: “This spacing is the simultaneously active and passive […] production of the intervals without which the ‘full’ terms would not signify, would not function”. 209 What lays between two toes is thus a gap, a spacing, the “différance”, the meaning, lays the affective dimension of the boot. It is at this point, when the clear distinction between body and mind is no longer tenable. The philosopher Edmund Husserl dissolves this binary thinking in his writings, which center around the concept of phenomenology. Following his line of thought, body and mind are not in contrast, but come together in the way we experience things, in our consciousness. Husserl notes how “that which is constituted in the outer attitude is there co-present together with what is constituted in the inner attitude”.210 Drawing on his writing, the critical theorist Sara Ahmed notes in her work on Queer Phenomenology how, when we approach an object, the object also approaches us and when we touch an object, it also touches us.211 As I tried the boots on and looked at them closely, it felt strange, as if there was something wrong with the way they appeared. A part of my body that I never thought about was suddenly exposed and emphasized through the shoe. As I put on a ‘deconstructed’ garment, a feeling of unfamiliarity and disorientation came to the fore. Ahmed uses the expression “in line” to redescribe the normative.212 She states how, for instance, a straight body is a body that is in line. But instead of seeing this line as given, we should be attentive to the processes of alignments that constitute it.213 It is through a repetition of behaviors and constant alignments that the lines themselves seem to disappear – and when things move out of the line they suddenly seem “wonky”.214 When the actor Cody Fern attended the Golden Globes in 2019, he stepped on the red carpet dressed in black, wearing a black pair of leather Tabi boots. His outfit was discussed in a number of articles, such as “What Are Those Golden Globe ‘Goat Shoes’?” and “Your Eyeballs Need to See the Hoof Shoes That Cody Fern Wore to the Golden Globes”.215 The

209 Derrida, Positions, 27. 210 Edmund Husserl, Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and a Phenomenological Philosophy (Dordrecht: Kluwer 1989), 168–169. 211 Ahmed, “Orientations: Toward a Queer Phenomenology”, 552. 212 Ibid., 555. 213 Ibid., 562. 214 Ibid. 215 Jasmine Tong, “What Are Those Golden Globe ‘Goat Shoes’?”, Papermag, January 7, 2019, https://www.papermag.com/goat-shoes-golden-globes-cody-fern-2625300234.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1; Emma Baty, “Your Eyeball’s Need to See the Hoofed Shoes That Cody Fern Wore to the Golden Globes”, Cosmopolitan, January 6, 2019, https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a25765889/cody-fern-goat- hoof-shoes-golden-globes.

42 reactions indicate irritation and confusion. The effect of being “out of place” as Ahmed notes, “is also to create disorientation in others”.216 In Paper Magazine, the actor’s appearance has been described as a the latest “crazy fashion statement,” in Refinery 29 the outfit is characterized as saying “no to tradition” while Vogue states how his look is “deviating from the norm”.217 “To make things queer is certainly to disturb the order of things”, Ahmed writes.218 She notes how the term “queer” may carry different meanings, one of them referring to “what is oblique or off-line or even just plain wonky”.219 It is in this regard, in being ‘out of line’ that wearing the Tabi boots may be regarded as a queer moment. In an interview with Vogue, Fern notes how the ‘best dressed’ on the red carpet is always a man in a simple black suit, which he finds “repetitive and exhausting”: “The constant message is like ‘This is what’s masculine. This is what a man wears’”.220 Wearing the Tabi boots, he thus decided to move out the line, held together by the repetition of certain looks on the red carpet, that constitute the norm – and bring something new to the table. What lays between two toes is therefore a break with the repetition of the same, an introduction of resistance, a moving out of the line. How this emphasis of a traditionally concealed part of the body, an emphasis of the new, wearing an object that may be regarded as “queer” in the way it is “one out of line, on a slant, the odd and strange one”, affects the wearer, will be discussed in depth in the following chapter.221

216 Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006), 160. 217Justin Moran, “The Devil Wears Margiela: Nicola Formichetti on Transforming Cody Fern”, Papermag, January 8, 2019, https://www.papermag.com/nicola-formichetti-cody-fern- 2625385571.html?rebelltitem=11#rebelltitem1.; Landon Peoples, “Cody Fern, Troye Sivan: The Rise of Queer Fashion At The Golden Globes”, Refinery29, January 7, 2019, https://www.refinery29.com/en- us/2019/01/220938/queer-fashion-golden-globes-cody-fern-troye-sivan.; Christian Allaire, “This American Horror Story Star Wrote Margiela’s Iconic Heels on the Globes Red Carpet”, Vogue, January 7, 2019, https://www.vogue.com/article/golden-globes-red-carpet-cody-fern. 218 Ahmed, “Orientations: Toward a Queer Phenomenology”, 565. 219 Ibid. 220 Christian Allaire, “Cody Fern on Louis Vuitton and Why Fashion Shouldn’t Be Defined by Gender”, Vogue, March 4, 2020, https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/cody-fern-louis-vuitton-paris-fashion-week-diary-interview. 221 Ahmed, “Orientations: Toward a Queer Phenomenology”, 566.

Chapter 2: Wearing the Tabi boot

Katharina is sitting in her apartment in Vienna in front of the laptop, framed by white walls that match her blouse with shoulder pads and white stitched embroidery, a cupboard with books and flowers becomes apparent in the background. She holds her purple shimmering flat ballerinas closer to the camera, pointing to the toe-box, so that her overall favorite detail of the Tabi shoe becomes visible. On the top of the toe-box there is a small knot in the same soft purple leather as the rest of the shoe. Katharina works for the Austrian Fashion Association in Vienna. After living in London for some time and coming back to Austria, she perceives the life in Vienna to be slow and filled with comfort. When she leaves the house in the morning and walks to the office that is just some streets away from her apartment, wearing her Tabi shoes, she feels like having a connection to the outside of a rather grounded way of living that she experiences in the city. It feels like injecting “just a little bit of fun and experimentation and trying something different”, Katharina says. “I think it is good to disrupt it a little bit sometimes”. The second part of this thesis strives to explore the relation between the shoes and their wearers in depth. Daniel Miller states that “a study of clothing should not be cold”, rather it should include the “tactile, emotional, intimate world of feelings”.222 This glimpse into the relation Katharina has with her Tabi shoes is taken from the interviews I conducted with six wearers of the boots and exemplifies one of many impressions, feelings, thoughts, and memories that are involved in the act of wearing them. In the following, I introduce the wearers before outlining the way the interviews have been conducted and how the data sets will be analyzed.

Marieke Marieke is 26 years old and lives in Munich where she works as a content writer for a fashion online-shop. She is originally from South Africa and moved to Germany two years ago. She got her Tabi boots, the black leather ankle boots, a few months after her arrival.

Giulia Giulia is 26 years old, living and working in Berlin at a PR agency. She got her Tabi boots, the white leather ankle boots with the 8cm block heel, one year before we conducted the interview.

222 Miller, Stuff, 41.

Katharina Katharina is 27 years old. She is living in Vienna and working for the Austrian Fashion Association. She purchased her first pair of Tabi boots two years ago, the beige-colored ankle boots with a light brown block heel. The summer before our conversation, she bought her second pair from a resale-platform, a purple ballerina Tabi shoe.

Robin Robin is 24 years old. He is living in Stockholm and working for the Swedish Fashion Council. He purchased his first pair of Tabi boots in London, approximately four years ago.

Ann-Sophie Ann Sophie is 25 years old. She is living in Berlin where she works as a stylist. She purchased her first pair of Tabi boots one year before we talked to each other, the black leather heeled boot. Half a year ago, she bought her second pair from a resale-platform, a flat pink shimmering Tabi shoe with a strap.

Alice Alice is 31 years old. She grew up in Bavaria but is living in Berlin now where she works as a fashion- and travel blogger. She bought her first pair of Tabi boots six years ago in Munich, a black velvet ankle boot with the block heel and “arabesque”, as she describes it, embroidery on it. Two years ago, she purchased her second pair, a black loafer Tabi shoe.

Interview: The Method

Through the interviews, I aim to gain a deeper understanding of the participants’ experience of wearing the boots. Drawing on my findings from the previous section, I strive to understand how the characteristics of the shoes may affect and transform the wearer. Thus, I chose to conduct qualitative interviews, as these have been described as giving “privileged access to people’s basic experience of the lived world”.223 Furthermore, qualitative interviews are deemed the most suitable to obtain “descriptions of the life world of the interviewee in order to interpret the meaning of the described phenomena”.224 ‘Lifeworld’ is a concept introduced

223 Steinar Kvale and Svend Brinkmann, InterViews: Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing, 2nd ed. (Los Angeles: Sage Publishing, 2009), 29. 224 Ibid., 3.

45 by Edmund Husserl that refers to a “consciousness of the world” that includes experiences or objects within a specific context.225 In line with my research aim and the wearer in focus, I thus conduct semi-structured in-depth interviews, as they allow the person that is being interviewed to become more visible as a “knowledge-producing participant in the process itself”.226 Accordingly, this study does not attempt to provide a representative sample that could be generalized to a larger group of people. Rather, my aim is to gain personal and detailed insights into this experience and to understand what constitutes it. At the initial stage of interpreting the data, I draw on thematic analysis, which Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke describe as a method for “identifying, analyzing and reporting patterns (themes) within data”.227 Throughout this stage, I follow an inductive analysis, approaching the material with an openness to different meanings and themes that may emerge. Following the six phases proposed by Braun and Clarke, I will begin to familiarize myself with the data by rereading the transcripts, continue by “coding interesting features of the data […] across the entire data set” and “collecting codes into potential themes”.228 Guided by my research questions, I go through the transcript and highlight the data that is relevant for the aim of my thesis. Thus, I focus on the way the wearers describe the different characteristics of the boots and how these affect their body as well as the overall feeling and perception. After reporting my findings and describing the themes that emerged from the data sets, I will discuss these patterns in my theoretical framework with the ideas of deconstructive thinking and affect theory.

The findings

The touch, the toe Robin is squatting on his chair in front of the white cupboard of his parent’s kitchen he is visiting. He looks back and forth between the screen and his little amstaff that tries to chew on his feet while we are talking. “You need to put the finger between the toe and the other ones in your sock, so the sock does not mess up when you’re walking”, he says. He sits down on the chair again, holding his leg up so that I can see his feet in the camera, and puts his finger between the big toe and the rest of the toes through his sock. He already had discussions with

225 Mark Bevan, “A Method of Phenomenological Interviewing”, Qualitative Health Research 24, no. 1 (2014): 136. 226 Brinkmann, Qualitative Interviewing: Understanding Qualitative Research, 21. 227 Virginia Braun and Victoria Clare, “Using thematic analysis in psychology”, Qualitative Research in Psychology 3 (2006): 79. 228 Ibid., 87.

46 his friends about how to wear the boots before he got them in a shop in London. “So, I already knew the trick and how to wear them as comfortable as possible,” he states. In all of the interviews that I conducted; the conversation evolved around the toe-box at one point. Katharina holds her cream-colored Tabi boot with the brown 8cm long heel to the camera and puts them back on her lap, while explaining how she felt “pleasantly surprised” when trying the boots on the moment they arrived in her office.

Figure 6: Katharina’s pair of Tabi boots

“The partition that goes between your big toe and the rest is not like you’re wearing Flip Flops”, she explains. “It is more like a suggestion of a shape.” For her, it felt rather natural than forced. At the same time “you also become hyperaware of your toes when you wear them”, she says. Although Katharina is so aware of her toes, she notices how the boot does not constantly remind her of its shape: “You tend to forget”, she states. Simultaneously, she feels like having extra stability through the divide. “You do not feel as warbly as you would feel in a different pair”, she says. “I like how it feels.”

Ann Sophie notes a similar experience. When she was still living in her parents’ house, and she stumbled across the Tabi boot, she wondered if it would make her as uncomfortable as she felt in the socks she sometimes wore as a child, where every single toe is separated. However, it did not feel like that at all. “Of course, it is weird in the beginning but after ten minutes, I got used to it”, she reports. When she bought her first pair of Tabi boots, she walked in them the whole day: “I was filled with excitement, so I did not care if they would hurt my feet, but they were actually super comfortable”, she says

Figure 7: Ann Sophie’s pair of Tabi boots

Katharina, Marieke and Alice note that the question of comfort is one that they repeatedly get asked when they wear the shoes. Marieke puts her black Tabi boots on during our interview and notes how she feels a bit more balanced and confident in walking, like the toe-gap anchors her. “I personally really like it. I feel like my feet have a little bit of a workout and are not just stagnant like in any shoes”, she states. The notion of comfort is also present in Robin’s account of wearing the boots: “You feel very grounded, and the shoe overall is very comfortable to wear.” Although he would not put them on for a whole day because he puts a lot of weight on the toes, he still finds them comfortable, compared to other heels. Alice remembers that when she first tried the shoes on, she thought about how weird it felt around the toes. Her next thought

48 was: ‘Oh it is so comfortable.’ When people ask her about it, the answer is clear: “It’s damn comfortable! I mean, are Flip Flops comfortable? I guess so.”

Feeling me, feeling complete Marieke is in her apartment in Munich while we are talking. It is the end of January and in periodical intervals of ten minutes, I have to turn the volume up as the sounds of the tram nearly drown her words. “I love my Tabi boots as much as I love talking about them”, she wrote to me – and we scheduled a meeting for the next Thursday evening. Marieke is from South Africa and when she came to Munich, she went to the Margiela Store and tried the boots on. “I immediately felt like a presence within myself, when I wore them, when I put them on”, she states. “I think it is just a sense of self and a sense of power. My Tabi boots definitely make me feel like my truest self”, she says. While Marieke has her boots on, and looks at them on her feet, she says: “It is like an added layer of confidence”. For her, this has also to do with the toe- gap, that makes her feel anchored and stable, “more powerful and confident”. The shoes serving as a mood lifter: “I feel fabulous when I wear them.” This aspect was also brought up by Robin. He decided to buy them in the moment he tried on a pair from his friends. “I felt completely fulfilled when I wore them. I felt very complete in my look, that was very interesting”, he says. The Tabi boots were the first boots with heels that he wore and for Robin, this was one step towards another step of his “self- experience in clothing”. He reports: “I think the more I wore them, the more I grew.” Nevertheless, he has to be in a certain mood to wear the boots, “a little more excited for the day”, Robin says. Alice feels similarly about being in a certain mindset when putting on the Tabi boots: “I need to feel like that”, she states. While she feels okay with the attention the shoe draws to her on some days, certain reactions have the potential to ruin her mood on other days. She is sitting in her apartment in Berlin, the laptop on her table in front of her, behind her a rack filled with books, figures and drawings. On the desk, in the corner of my screen, I can see her two pairs of black Tabi boots that she now looks at closely while talking: “It’s like a confident boost”, she states. “Even though they are subtle, they are kind of giving me that: ‘Yeah, I’m cool feeling’,” she states. Alice first came across the divided toe-box when she was watching anime and reading manga. As the split-toe emerged in Japan, it was a recurrent element in the country’s pop culture. When she saw them with the heel, it felt “so weird and so familiar but then so strange”, she states. At the same time, she thought: ‘Yes, that is it.’” Maybe I found myself in there”, Alice states:

Because partly and obviously I am German, I was born in Germany. But then again, my roots are in China and Vietnam, and I also feel deconstructed, not belonging here, not belonging there. Maybe there are similarities with feeling deconstructed but then also, trying to express that way in clothing.

Injecting difference, standing out For Alice, fashion is a way to express herself, “to break out, to be non-confirmative in this society that I was growing up in”. She states: “I think this is why I feel so drawn to things that are a little bit outrageous to the normal person.” A similar account has been described by Giulia. When she had to decide for a color, she went for the white one: “I was thinking: If they stand out, they stand even more out in white.” She lives in Berlin now, but when she visits her hometown in the Bavarian Forest, which lays, as she states, “behind the moon”, she likes to wear them and “enjoy the stares”. She states how she sees that people are shocked and explains: “And I kind of like shocking them a little bit.”

Figure 8: Giulia's Tabi boots

A similar experience is reported by Katharina, who lives in Vienna. She feels like in the city, and in society in general, being dressed is not hugely important, which is why she thinks that “it feels good to make people a little bit uncomfortable around here and maybe make them see something different”. For Ann-Sophie, it is also this difference that makes it so special to her. “I like to have things that not everybody has”, she reports. “I feel special when I wear them, because it is a shoe that not everybody owns.” Nevertheless, she has to be in a certain mood while wearing them. “Sometimes I just don’t want to be seen”, Ann-Sophie says. “[..] and sometimes I want to get dressed like: Here I am. For these days, the boots are perfect.” Meanwhile, Robin has noticed more people on the street wearing the shoes. Although he states that everyone could of course buy what they want to, but that there are some specific garments that one should “have some more information about” before purchasing them. Although he says that he will have the boots for his whole life, he also notes how he does not feel so special anymore, wearing them.

Affecting others Although Robin states that more and more people wearing the boots, every interviewee notices ‘the looks’ when they are wearing the Tabi boots. Katharina explains how people “definitely look at always”, and how this does not make her feel uncomfortable. Rather, she thinks that this is what makes them so great: “It is just this tiny detail, it is not a flashy thing, but it is impossible to ignore for people”, she says. Marieke reports a similar experience: “I live in Munich where people do not really speak to each other but […] stranger come up to me and say: ‘I don’t understand your shoes.’ Alice recollects a moment when she was sitting in the metro and people around her were pointing to her shoes and laughing about them. In a similar manner, Ann Sophie reports several situations, in which others commented on her shoe. She notes one experience, in which children in the metro were talking about her shoes, screaming ‘Hooves, Hooves.’ However, this is the only negative experience she had while wearing them outside. Usually, she likes that she can make someone smile just because they find the shoes interesting. She says:

Of course, there are people that seem to be a bit irritated, but I usually take the shoe off then, just to show that there is a gap in between. Most of the people I meet find them interesting and have never seen them before – and that is really beautiful.

When Katharina puts her white Tabi boots or her purple shimmering ballets with the split-toe on, the experience is something that “feels bigger than just my everyday life”. She states how she feels a connection with all the other Tabi lovers around the world: “If you meet someone who also has them on, it is like an instant connection.” Marieke reports a similar experience: “You feel like you are a part of a club almost. It’s like you are speaking to people who are maybe likeminded to you. […] And you can kind of find like-minded people by wearing them.” Alice also feels like having an “internal collection” to people she sees wearing the boots on the street. When Giulia was meeting a group of people, there was girl who approached her. She did not know Giulia’s name, but she remembered that she owns the Tabi boots from a picture she posted on Instagram. “I only have one picture of them online wearing them, and that is from last year”, Giulia states. “So, it was a really long time, but she still remembered them.”

Discussion

Wearing, Deconstructing When the philosopher John Caputo strives to explain the term deconstruction “in a nutshell,” he describes it as “a way of giving things a new twist” as being “bent on giving things a new bent”.229 Furthermore, he states that a deconstructive analysis exposes the present to something “‘wholly other’ […] beyond the horizon of the ‘same’”.230 The idea of introducing a new twist is visible in the construction of the Tabi boots. The introduction of a historical reference, an element from a different culture that has not yet been seen in the context of the Western fashion industry, relies on the notion of introducing something different, something ‘other’ than what we are used to. Furthermore, the heeled boot, a familiar construction of the present, is being exposed to the toe-gap, to what aligns with the “wholly other”. However, the longing for novelty and exposure, in which the design of the Tabi boot aligns with the ideas of deconstructive analysis is not merely visible in the boot itself but furthermore in the accounts of how wearing the shoes has been described by the interviewees. While Katharina perceives the way of living in Vienna as slow, grounded and comfortable, she feels like it is good to make her environment feel a bit uncomfortable and to expose them to something different by wearing her Tabi boots. In a similar manner, Giulia states how she particularly enjoys the stares that she gets when she visits her hometown and how she likes to shock the people living there. The way they strive to inject difference and enjoy the deviation from the norm, may be read as a way

229 Caputo, “Deconstruction in a Nutshell: The Very Idea (!)”, 42. 230 Ibid.

52 that deconstructs how things are done and seen. Katharina feels like getting dressed is seen as shallow, as unimportant: “If you spent time and attention on how you got dressed and if you put on something that is a little bit different, this is not super well respected”, she states. Therefore, wearing her Tabi boots gives her the opportunity to “disrupt” this concept. An act that may be read as a deconstruction of the underlying principles that constitutes our view on clothing. Derrida defined the act of deconstruction as a way to “naturalize what is not natural” and “to not assume that what is conditioned by history, institutions or society is natural”.231 Katharina’s act of injecting difference, of bringing in a new notion may be regarded as a questioning of what is deemed natural, of questioning the notion that clothing and caring about one’s appearance is shallow, of deconstructing the idea of clothing being superficial by attracting the attention to precisely that element and affect others by creating discomfort. This notion can furthermore be observed in the way Alice experiences how her interest in fashion has been perceived on the countryside where she grew up. As her dream to work in fashion has not been taken seriously, she feels like fashion is a way for her to break out of the surrounding she grew up in, which may also explain why she feels drawn to “non-traditional ugly things or: what people think is ugly”, as she states. What lays in the act of wearing the Tabi boots is thus a disruption that comes with a stubbornness which is also visible in Robin’s account. He states how he feels confident when wearing the boots: “I felt that I am the one who is owning that look. And no one else can comment on that and if they want to do that, you’re welcome but I don’t really care.”

Creating discomfort This disruption also reflects in the way people react to the boot, visible through stares, comments and questions that have been reported by every interviewee in the conversations. “One might think that Berlin is so open minded, and everyone tolerates everything, but you definitely get some sort of reaction, if you want it or not”, Ann Sophie states when explaining why she has to be in a certain mood to wear the Tabi boots. The irritation is most visible in the questions that Marieke gets asked when wearing her black leather boots with the toe-gap in Munich. She states how people come up to her saying ‘I do not understand your shoes.’ “I have definitely had little children be like: ‘Mommy, she has hooves.’ German people are quite bland, asking: ‘What are those?’ and ‘Why are they like that?’”, she reports. It is in this regard, that

231 PrestyGomez, “Derrida - defining deconstruction”, YouTube video, 2:19, 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgwOjjoYtco&t=9s.

53 the Tabi boot seems to create a disorientation in others, which Ahmed describes as an effect of something or someone to be “‘out of place’”.232 The deconstructed garment that is a combination of elements that usually do not fit together is not “in line” with what is regarded as “natural”. The hidden toe-box is now deconstructed, opened up, which affects the wearers and how they are seen by their surroundings. Ahmed furthermore notes how it is in “the hope of changing directions […] that we do not know where some paths may take us: risking departure from the straight and narrow, makes new futures possible, which might involve going astray, getting lost, or even becoming queer”.233 When Katharina puts on the boots and walks through the streets of Vienna, challenging the perception of her surrounding by introducing an unfamiliarity, she departs from this narrow path that is how caring about clothing is seen as shallow. Although the term ‘queer’ is now commonly used in connection to sexual and gender minorities, its former meaning was describing something “strange, peculiar or odd”.234 When Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas explore Queer Style, they understand the term as one that “suggests divergence from a rooted norm”.235 It is in this light, that the Tabi boots may be read as an object that is queer, as one that is deviating from the norm, capable of creating discomfort in others, and at the same time, opening up new paths of being.

Touching, feeling The arising of new feelings and simultaneously, new paths, is particularly visible in the interviewees’ descriptions of the moment of touch. Following Nathan’s writing, no sensation can “trigger emotional phenomena and feelings” as much as tactile ones.236 When Marieke puts on her shoes, she feels “a presence” within herself, it feels like an “added layer of confidence”. In a similar manner, Robin notes how he felt “completely fulfilled” when he first tried the boots on. Ahmed notes: “What gets near is both shaped by what bodies do and in turn affects what bodies can do.”237 When Daniel Miller explores the relationship between clothing and the self in different contexts through ethnographical studies, he notes how it has come apparent that it is not just the clothing that is changing, “it’s the other side of the equation, the self, that is changing”.238

232 Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others, 160. 233 Ahmed, “Orientations: Toward a Queer Phenomenology”, 554. 234 Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas, Queer Style (London, New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013), 14. 235 Ibid. 236 Nathan, “The sense of touch - a philosophical surprise”, 26. 237 Ahmed, “Orientations: Toward a Queer Phenomenology”, 552. 238 Miller, Stuff, 39.

What is described here may be regarded as a movement, as a transformation. With the second layer of confidence, with feeling complete, one changes. This transformation can be observed in the very literal moment when the shoes are put on and the wearer is forced to rethink and to actively find ways to wear the Tabi boots in a way that feels comfortable. When I asked the respondents to describe the feeling when they tried the boots on for the first time, the emphasis of these situations was on the moment their feet were sliding into the toe-box. Some of them tried the boots on somewhere else before they purchased them, while for Katharina and Giulia, for instance, the first time they tried them on was when their package arrived. Each of the interviewees developed a method on how to wear them in a way that feels pleasant. Robin wears normal socks and makes a gap with the fingers before putting the shoes on, while Giulia cuts the socks between her toe-gap and the rest of the toes. Marieke wears the shoes with tabi socks. All of them actively thought about the way they would wear the boots and how they would adjust. They had to transform their habits in order to wear the shoes and do it in the most comfortable way. These particular capacities to transform is what Seely describes as the “affective dimensions” of fashion.239 He further states that it is through this affective fashion that designers “harness the transformative potential in both bodies and material objects” so that new ways of attuning to our bodies, and the world are possible.240

Transforming, becoming Thus, fashion’s potential to affect is captured in the moment the garment touches our skin, in the moment the object influences and changes us. Seely regards the notion of transformation as an act of ‘becoming’, drawing on the writings of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. The French philosophers introduced this concept in order to capture a process that describes a floating between different states, that accounts for the relationships between the elements of an assemblage that seem discrete. Thus, becoming is not an imitation, an identification or a resemblance.241 It is not being one, but being many, and is a process that is constant. Deleuze and Guattari note how assuming that you either imitate or you are, would be falling into a “false alternative,” that what is real is the process of becoming itself.242 This floating between two states evokes the duality that Simmel assigned to the system of fashion and that can be traced in the construction of the Tabi boots, as it has been noted in

239 Seely, “How Do You Dress a Body Without Organs?”, 251. 240 Ibid., 249. 241 Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus Capitalism and Schizophrenia, 237. 242 Ibid., 238.

55 the first chapter. Fashion is driven by imitation and distinction and is thus, in a constant process. The Tabi boot, a product of these mechanism that is, simultaneously, displaying the evolving trends while rejecting them, may be regarded as an object that moves between these two states, that is changing, that is becoming. Furthermore, this duality, the movement between two states also reflects in how wearing the Tabi boots is perceived. Alice, for instance, states how she feels more comfortable wearing the boots in her neighborhood than she feels in other parts of Berlin – and how she prefers to wear them in countries like Japan than in Germany. The way the shoes draw the attention of others onto the self is something that she has to be in the mood for and that she cannot deal with every day. In a similar vein, Ann Sophie notes how she has to be in a mood where she wants to be seen when she puts on her Tabi boots. Although both of them enjoy wearing their Tabi boots and like the way they look, they are not always ready to face the opinions of others. In certain moments, they enjoy the deviation, in others they don’t. Alice statement that she “would like not to think about other people’s opinions” implies a process that is ongoing.

Becoming animal The detail that evokes the attention of the others is the toe-box. It is at the center of all the conversation, it has been perceived as ‘different’ and has, repeatedly, evoked images of animalism. Ann Sophie was sitting in the metro when kids were looking at her shoes, screaming “Hooves, Hooves.” When Cody Fern stepped on the red carpet of the Golden Globes, the press referred to the Tabi boots as “goat shoes”. Seely notes how specific designers make use of features that may be taken from technology, machines or animals “in ways that facilitate the becoming non-human of the wearer’s body” and question the Western binary thinking that is defined by hierarchies.243 The divided toe-gap, the animalistic feature, is the element that makes wearing the Tabi boots a queer moment, is the element that materializes distinction, that may be read as opening the body for a “becoming-animal”. This state is again, a floating one. Following the writings of Deleuze and Guattari, it does not concern becoming one with the animal, it is not the imitation of an animal, but stands, as the animal does, for “a pack, a band, a population, a peopling, in short, a multiplicity”.244 Thus, becoming animal may be understood as a “deterritorialization in which a subject no longer occupies a realm of stability and identity,” but is rather in-between, in constant movement, that

243 Seely, “How Do You Dress a Body Without Organs?”, 249. 244 Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus Capitalism and Schizophrenia, 239.

56 is, although “restless, insomniac, or in flight” nevertheless “at peace with others”.245 Just as the ideas of deconstructive thinking are based on challenging how things are seen and the underlying structures of the systems we live in, it is still filled with respect for the thoughts and traditions that hold them together. Similarly, wearing the Tabi boots has been regarded as a process that is connected to injecting difference, to shocking, to introducing novelty, to making yourself vulnerable by drawing the looks of other people onto yourself is one that is restless and in flight, it is also a process that is filled with peace, that is voluntarily, comfortable and connected to a feeling of self. The notion of comfort has been a recurring one in the accounts of the interviewees. Although skeptical at first, all of them regard the Tabi boots as comfortable. In Body Dressing, Ruth Holliday notes that comfort also stands for “the degree of fit between the outside of one’s body and its inside” and “the way in which identity is mapped onto the body”.246 When Robin tried the boots on, he noted how he felt complete. For him, more than for the other respondents, this sense of self was also connected to the heel, as it is the first time that he put on a shoe with a heel. Marieke also noted how she felt a “presence within herself”, and repeatedly notes how comfortable the shoes feel to her. So comfortable, that she even wears the tabi socks around the house. “Comfort means in this case that one expresses externally that which one feels inside,” Holliday writes.247 Accordingly there is “a wish to close the gap between performance (acting) and ontology (being)”.248 In connection to the Tabi boots, this gap is closed through the division of the toe-box, through the introduction of unfamiliarity, of difference. For Marieke and Ann-Sophie, it is the toe-gap in particular, for Robin it is also the heel that constitutes a novelty for him, for Alice it is the connection of two things that seem separate. Thus, the notion of comfort, of feeling the self, lays in the deconstructive approach that is inherent in the design of the shoes and that also changes the way we are perceived by our environment. For the philosopher Rosi Braidotti, this redefinition of “one’s sense of attachment and connection to a shared world, a territorial space” and the transformation of one’s “sensorial and perceptual coordinates” while expressing a multiplicity of belonging, describes the process of becoming animal. 249 This redefinition is visible in the way Katharina feels when she wears the

245 Gerald L. Bruns, “Becoming-Animal (Some Simple Ways)”, New Literary History 38, no. 4 (2007): 703-704. 246 Ruth Holliday, “Fashioning the Queer Self” in Body Dressing: Dress, Body, Culture, ed. Joanne Entwistle and Elizabeth Wilson (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2001), 222. 247 Ibid. 248 Ibid. 249 Rosi Braidotti, “Animals, Anomalies, and Inorganic Others”, PMLA 124, no. 2 (March 2009): 530.

Tabi boots, how it feels “bigger” than just her everyday life and how she feels connected with “all the other Tabi lovers out there”. This feeling that is, a new connection to a shared world, has also been noted by the other respondents. Marieke states: “You can kind of find like-minded people by wearing them.” “What sets affective fashion apart […] is that it seeks to capture this affective capacity and maximize it in order to locate the lines of nonhuman becoming inherent in all bodies”, Seely argues.250 Integrating the toe-box that evokes the image of the hooves, and integrating this element repeatedly in various shapes of a shoe, may be understood as a maximization of this affective capacity that drives the nonhuman becoming, as it is this element, the divided toe-box, that affects the wearer as it is affecting others, “like-minded” people, just as these who are not familiar with the design. It is in this deconstructive approach that is inherent in the shoe’s construction by combining the unusual and the familiar, by proposing a duality, that the affective dimension of the boots come to the fore. Deleuze and Guattari note that the affect is not a personal feeling but “is the effectuation of a power of the pack that throws the self into upheaval and makes it reel”.251 It is through this deconstruction, the introduction of novelty, that the norm is challenged and various association, the power of the pack, is evoked. It is through the ideas of deconstruction that the boots affect – and this affect may be regarded as a becoming, as a becoming-animal.

Figure 9: Alice Tabi boots

250 Seely, “How Do You Dress a Body Without Organs?”, 251. 251 Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus Capitalism and Schizophrenia, 240.

Conclusion

Introducing the exhibition “Items: Is Fashion Modern?” in 2017, curator Paola Antonelli notes how guests who enter the white cubes of the Museum of Modern Art are greeted by the familiarity of the pieces on display, hanging on the walls and placed behind glass showcases. “That kind of moment of recognition will spark a new reflection on the things we wear and also ultimately on the impact that they have on society and on the environment”, Antonelli states.252 Exploring the item with the number ‘097’ in the exhibition, I engaged in this reflection, striving to study its impact, departing from a moment of recognition, of arising feelings while wearing the Tabi boots that sparked my interest in articulating these emotions. The Tabi boots by Maison Martin Margiela, first introduced in 1989, distinguish themselves through the split-toe that is carved into the toe-box, which led to the question that I repeatedly returned to throughout my exploration: What is it that lays between two toes? A question that would unfold itself in various dimensions, just as the multiple meanings of fashion unfold themselves once carefully studied. In the first part of my thesis, I began the exploration with the item in focus, aiming to understand how the ideas of deconstructive thinking may be embedded in the boot. Drawing on the tools of an object-based investigation that allows the garment to remain at the centre of attention, I extensively described the Tabi boots’ look, identified the item’s characteristics and forms. Striving to compare my pair with other Tabi shoes, I conducted a visual object-study with images and texts stored in digital archives, which allowed me to reflect on the different ways to approach the study of an item. Throughout the deduction, I became part of this exploration when describing the touch, trying the boots on and capturing the feelings of wearing them. It was throughout my study that these feelings have been identified as the ‘affect’ of clothing, showing itself in the way our perception of the self and our environment may change when putting them on. Affect theory allows body and mind to be one and is attentive to what is in-between. Developing from phenomenology and developed further by feminist writings, it acknowledges the importance of tactile experiences, of the moment perceiver and perceived touch – and feel. While other writings in Fashion Studies strived to incorporate the often-neglected body into their writings,

252 The Museum of Modern Art, “Is fashion modern? | HOW TO SEE the Items exhibition with MoMA curator Paola Antonelli”, YouTube video, 9:57, December 20, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HQBHONu0J8.

59 the tactile experience, the literal moment of touch, has still been overlooked. Drawing on this framework allowed me to become present in this study, to draw on my emotional recollections while wearing the Tabi boots which aided me on the journey to capture the fleeting concept of ‘affect’. Employing the means of ‘applied theory’, shunting back and forth between theory and the material, led the exploration to a variety of concepts that were found to be articulated and present in the boots. The object’s characteristics, the split toe-box just as the combination of two elements, foreign and familiar, leave the impression of a duality that is reinforced throughout the emotions that arose towards my environment when wearing the Tabi boots. Belonging and distinction took turns. Read through the lens of Simmel’s writing on “The Philosophy of Fashion”, the object appears to be one that encapsulates the mechanisms of fashion – of distinction and belonging – that define the system of fashion. Underpinned by the study of the reinterpretations of the Tabi boots that have been released over the course of the past 30 years, the argument has been made that the boots are defined by – and reflect the system they operate in. Yet these mechanisms do not allow a style to stay but what is in fashion must necessarily end and reinvent itself eventually in order to remain distinct. The constant recurring of the divided toe-box in the brand’s history, being reformulated and sold until today, thus suggest a resistance towards the system they seem to reinforce. A resistance that points to the ways the ideas of deconstruction are embedded in the boots. While it is not the first attempt to connect Derrida’s writings to the way Martin Margiela constructed his garments, my endeavours to connect deconstructive thinking with the theory of affect bear novelty to the field. The object study revealed that what is carved into the boots is a gap that compromises the ideas of deconstructive thinking, showing itself in the will to unfold, to uncover fashion’s trace, to expand the possibilities of what currently is. Further, it is in this deconstructive approach, in the distressed seam, the merging of foreign and familiar, the impression of duality, that a queer moment is possible and where hence, the potential to affect lays. It is here, where one facet of my question reveals itself. What lays between two toes is thus the feeling that I strived to articulate, the emotion that initially stirred my interest and that led to the exploration of the Tabi boots. It is the affect that lays in-between the perceiver and the perceived, unfurled in the way the item forces the wearer to change, to adjust to the unusual. It is through the deconstructive approach that one is forced to change when sliding into the boots. It is in this force that the boots affect. In the second part of my thesis, I strived to test this affective facet of the Tabi boots by conducting interviews with six owners and wearers of a pair, aiming to explore their relation

60 to the item. Striving to understand how the characteristics of the boots affect them, the focus of the interviews laid on the tactile experience, the touch and the way the interviewees feel when they have their boots on. Throughout my conversation with Marieke, Giulia, Katharina, Ann-Sophie, Robin and Alice, another facet of my initial question unfolded itself. What lays between two toes is thus a variety, a multiplicity, a pack. It is a resistance of the usual, the introduction of novelty, of connecting with others, of feeling like one truest self, of injecting difference and the notion of comfort that were found in the in-between. The affect, showing itself in various dimensions, coming with a multiplicity of meanings, leads to a becoming. It is in this understanding, that the notion of fashion as merely a mean to represent seems no longer tenable – a notion that Daniel Miller strived to deconstruct in his book Stuff. In the introduction he points out the problem with viewing clothes merely as the surface that represents us or fails to do so, as “we are then inclined to consider people who take clothes seriously as themselves superficial”.253 In order to understand what constitutes this belief, to understand the underlying principles, one needs to “interrogate a basic philosophical assumption about what it is to be human”.254 In his book, Miller accordingly, exposes “the assumptions we make about where being is located and […] that being is deep”.255 Just as Derrida stressed the necessity to question and expose what is assumed and the conditions that society is based on, Miller strived to disprove the notion of clothing as being superficial by questioning the underlying beliefs that define our views. Derrida’s deconstruction of the way philosophy is thought of and conducted has wider implications for our overall thinking. Conducting ethnographical fieldwork, Miller succeeded in disproving this notion. In a similar vein, I understand my exploration of wearing the Tabi boots as a deconstruction of the notion that clothes may merely be read as signs that represent us, as an attempt to rethink our relationship to clothing. The ideas of deconstruction in connection with affect theory provided this research with the necessary tools and thoughts for this change of perspectives, for questioning and allowing to broaden the understanding of what fashion ‘does.’ Proposing the argument that fashion can spark meaning into the wearer’s experience, that the Tabi boots affect, I turned to the interviewees, just as Miller turned to ethnography. Beginning with the objects, continuing with myself and through the conversation with others, this study proves that wearing clothes cannot be reduced to the notion of representation – but can be affective, can connect, can make us feel more like ourselves, can even change our perception, can affect

253 Miller, Stuff, 13. 254 Ibid., 22. 255 Ibid., 16.

61 others, can irritate and can even lead to a queer moment. What lays between two toes is thus again, a multiplicity, a pack, a becoming. Just as the field of fashion studies is defined by its multiple ways of understanding and studying it, it is in a constant process to become. This study was built on four legs with the item as a constant point of return. It began with the object in focus, moved to the perception of the boots through the ‘I’, turned to their depiction in runway shows and their representation in digital archives, experienced through the screen, before moving to the conversation with others about their experience of wearing the boots. It was in this multiplicity that the meaning of the boots, the ideas of deconstruction and with it, its affective dimension, unfolded itself. This multiplicity was sufficient to grasp this meaning, as each of these paths led to different insights. It was in the description that the item was comprehended, and its duality was grasped, through the ‘I’ that the ‘affect’ showed itself, through the comparison with other variations that the deconstructive ideas, built into the boots, became present. Furthermore, the importance of experiencing the boots through the touch, the importance of the literal experience, became visible in the contrast with examining the boots through the screen. It showed that the meaning, the affect, may only be teased out through tactility, through interaction. Although the study of the different variations of the Tabi boots in the online archives of fashion museums proved the most alerting feature of the boots to be the divided toe box, which was in the focus of all photographs and descriptions, its transformative dimension could not be sensed through the study of visuals. Without the touch and the experience of wearing the boots, one could not grasp how the split-toe forces one to change at the moment our feet slide into the toe-box, simultaneously exposing how things are usually done. The way we perceive our surroundings and the way we affect others could not be grasped through the study of its representations. These facets of clothes were made unavailable in the study of representations, the screen creating a barrier to the way clothes might affect. The interviews showed that the interest in the Tabi boots was stirred through the look, but the feelings arose during the process of wearing them and exposing oneself to the looks of others. Thus, the affect, what lays in-between, may be sensed through what we see, but only grasped and thus, felt, by experiencing it. Building on these four legs proved to be vital for this study. Moving through this exploration with applied theory allowed material, theory, and methods to continuously interact and affect each other. This approach led to a fruitful examination of the material as it stayed open to unexpected connections and results. Furthermore, it allowed methods and theories to be employed differently. Perceived as transformative rather than fixed, methodology and theory were regarded as invitations, open to be rethought, used in combination, able to

62 transform in accordance with the material. In this exploration, method and theory were expanded – as they were combined, inspired each other, interacted. It was through the focus on the item, by bringing in its perception through the ‘I’ and the interviewees, that the ideas of deconstructive thinking and affect theory were allowed to merge, leading to different insights about the affective dimension of clothes. What the exploration of the Tabi boots showed is that deconstructive ideas and characteristics may affect, even transform, even lead to a becoming. And that it is in future research in the humanities that methods and theories should not be approached as concepts that are set but that they, just as the boots and their wearers, are never one, but many and hence, themselves in a constant process of becoming.

Bibliography

Books

Ahmed, Sara. Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006.

Antonelli, Paola, and Michelle Millar Fisher. Items: Is Fashion Modern? New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2017.

Breward, Christopher. The Culture of Fashion: A new history of fashionable dress. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1995.

Brinkmann, Svend. Qualitative Interviewing: Understanding Qualitative Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Caputo, John D., ed. Deconstruction in a Nutshell, A Conversation with Jacques Derrida, New York: Fordham University Press, 1997.

Debo, Kaat. Maison Martin Margiela ‘20’ The exhibition. Antwerp: MoMu, 2008.

Deleuze, Gilles and Felix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Vol. 2. Translated by Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987.

Derrida, Jacques. Positions. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1981. - Of Grammatology. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.

Entwistle, Joanne. The Fashioned Body. 2nd ed. Hoboken: Wiley, 2015.

Evans, Caroline. Fashion at the edge: spectacle, modernity and deathliness. New Haven: Yale University press, 2003.

Frankel, Susannah. Visionaires: Interviews with Fashion Designers. California: V&A Publications, 2005.

Geczy, Adam, and Vicki Karaminas. Queer Style. London, New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013.

Granata, Francesca. Experimental Fashion: Performance Art, Carnival and the Grotesque Body. New York: I.B. Tauris, 2017.

Gregg, Melissa, and Gregory J. Seigworth. The Affect Theory Reader. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010.

Howell Smith, A.D. Guide to the Japanese textiles Part 2, Textile fabrics. London: Printed under the authority of H. M. Stationery Off, 1919. https://archive.org/details/guidetojapaneset02vict/page/6/mode/2up.

Husserl, Edmund. Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and a Phenomenological Philosophy, Vol.2. Translated by Richard Rojczewic and André Schuwer. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1989.

Kvale, Steinar, and Svend Brinkmann. InterViews: Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing, 2nd ed. Los Angeles: Sage Publishing, 2009.

Miller, Daniel. Stuff. Cambridge: Polity, 2010.

Paterson, Mark. The senses of Touch: Haptics, Affects and Technologies. Oxford, New York: Berg, 2007.

Richard, Martin and Harold Koda. Infra Apparel. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art/Harry Abrams Inc., 1993.

Samson, Alexandra. The Women’s Collections 1989-2009 Martin Margiela. New York: Rizzoli Electa. 2018.

Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Touching Feeling, Affect Pedagogy, Performativity. Durham, London: Duke University Press, 2003.

Taylor, Lou. The study of dress history. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002.

Thanem, Torkild, and David Knights. Embodied Research Methods. London: SAGE Publications, Ltd, 2019.

Tredre, Roger and Brenda Polan. The Great Fashion Designers. Oxford: New York: Berg, 2009.

Vinken, Barbara. Fashion Zeitgeist: Trends and cycles in the fashion system. Oxford: Berg, 2005.

Woodward, Sophie. Why Women Wear What They Wear. Oxford: Berg, 2007.

Young, Iris Marion. On Female Body Experience: “Throwing like a Girl” and Other Essays. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Edited Books & Book Chapters

B. Kaiser, Susan Green and Denise Nicole. “Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Fashion Studies: Philosophical Underpinnings and Multiple Masculinities.” In Fashion Studies, Research Methods, Sites and Practices, edited by Heike Jenss, 160-180. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Derrida, Jacques. “Letter to a Japanese Friend.” In Derrida and Difference, edited by Wood and Bernasconi, 1-5. Warwick: Parousia Press. 1985.

Gill, Allison. “Jacques Derrida Fashion under Erasure.” In Thinking Through Fashion, A Guide to Key Theorists, edited by Agnés Rocamora and Anneke Smelik, 251-268. London, New York: I.B. Tauris, 2016.

Granata, Francesca. “Fitting Sources – Tailoring Methods: A Case Study of Martin Margiela and the Temporalities of Fashion.” In Fashion Studies, Research Methods, Sites and Practices, edited by Heike Jenss, 143-159. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Holliday, Ruth. “Fashioning the Queer Self.” In Body Dressing: Body, Culture, edited by Joanne Entwistle and Elizabeth Wilson, 215-232. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2001.

Jenss, Heike. “Mixed Methods Introduction.” In Fashion Studies, Research Methods, Sites and Practices, edited by Heike Jenss, 137-141. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Llewllyn Negrin. “Maurice Merleau-Ponty: The Corporeal Experience of Fashion.” In Thinking through fashion, A Guide to Key Theorists, edited by Agnés Rocamora and Anneke Smelik, 115-131. London, New York: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, 2016.

Simmel, Georg. “The Philosophy of Fashion.” In Fashion: Critical and Primary Sources The Twentieth Century to Today, edited by Peter McNeil, 14-37. Oxford: Berg. 2009.

Vinken, Barbara. “The New Nude.” In Maison Martin Margiela ‚20‘ The exhibition, edited by Kaat Debo,111-119. Antwerp: MoMu, 2018.

Journals

Ahmed, Sara. “Orientations: Toward a Queer Phenomenology.” A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 12, no. 4 (2006): 543-574. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/202832.

Auslander, Leora. “Beyond words.” American Historical Review 110, no. 4 (2005): 1015- 1045. https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.110.4.1015.

Bevan, Mark T. “A Method of Phenomenological Interviewing.” Qualitative Health Research 24, no.1(January 2014): 136-144. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732313519710.

Braidotti, Rosi. “Animals, Anomalies, and Inorganic Others.” PMLA 124, no. 2 (2009): 526- 532. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25614294.

Braun, Virginia and Victoria Clare, “Using thematic analysis in psychology.” Qualitative Research in Psychology 3, no. (2006): 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.

Bruns, Gerald L. “Becoming-Animal (Some Simple Ways).” New Literary History 38, no. 4 (2007): 703-20. https://doi.org/10.1353/nlh.2009.0003.

Evans, Caroline. “The Golden Dustman: A Critical Evaluation of the Work of Martin Margiela and a Review of Margiela Exhibition (9/4/1615).” Fashion theory 2, no. 1 (March 1998): 73-93. https://doi.org/ 10.2752/136270498779754470.

Fleming, E. McClung. “Artifact Study: A Proposed Model.” Winterthur Portfolio 9 (1974): 153-173. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1180572.

Gill, Allison. “Deconstruction in Fashion: The Making of Unfinished, Decomposing and Re- assembled Clothes.” Fashion Theory 2, no. 1 (1998): 25-50. https://doi.org/10.2752/136270498779754489.

Nathan, Bevis. “The sense of touch – a philosophical surprise.” Journal of holistic healthcare 4, no. 4 (November 2017): 24-31. http://www.howardevans.co.uk/wp- content/uploads/2013/09/HH-4.4-final-lo-res1.pdf.

Palmer, Alexandra. “New Directions: Fashion History Studies and Research in North America and England.” Fashion Theory 1, no. 3 (1997): 297-312. http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/136270497779640161.

Prown, Jules David. "Mind in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method." Winterthur Portfolio 17, no. 1 (Spring 1982): 1-19. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1180761.

Ruggerone, Lucia. “The Feeling of Being Dressed: Affect Studies and the Clothed Body.” Fashion Theory 21, no. 5 (2016): 573-593. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/1362704X.2016.1253302.

Seely, Stephen D. “How Do You Dress a Body Without Organs? Affective Fashion and Nonhuman Becoming.” Women’s Studies Quarterly 41, no.1/2 (2012): 247-265. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23611788.

Skivko, Maria. “Deconstruction in Fashion As a Path Toward New Beauty Standards: The Maison Margiela Case.” ZoneModa Journal 10, no. 1 (July 2020): 39-49. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2611-0563/11086.

Steele, Valerie. “A Museum of Fashion is More than a Clothes Bag.” Fashion Theory 2, no. 4 (1998): 327-336. https://doi.org/10.2752/136270498779476109.

Woodward, Sophie and Tom Fisher. “Fashioning through materials: Material culture, materiality and processes of materialization.” Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty 5, no.1 (October 2014): 3-23. https://doi.org/ 10.1386/csfb.5.1.3_2.

Zborowska, Agata. “Deconstruction in contemporary fashion design: Analysis and critique.” International Journal of Fashion Studies 2, no. 2 (October 2015): 185-201. https://doi.org/10.1386/infs.2.2.185_1.

Zerilli, Linda M.G. “The Turn to Affect and the Problem of Judgement.” New Literary History 46, no. 2 (Spring 2015): 261-268. https://doi.org/ 10.1353/nlh.2015.0019.

Magazines

Allaire, Christian. “This American Horror Story Star Wrote Margiela’s Iconic Heels on the Globes Red Carpet.” Vogue, January 7, 2019. https://www.vogue.com/article/golden-globes-red-carpet-cody-fern.

- “Cody Fern on Louis Vuitton and Why Fashion Shouldn’t Be Defined by Gender.” Vogue, March 4, 2020, https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/cody-fern-louis- vuitton-paris-fashion-week-diary-interview.

Baty, Emma. “Your Eyeball’s Need to See the Hoofed Shoes That Cody Fern Wore to the Golden Globes.” Cosmopolitan, January 6, 2019. https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a25765889/cody-fern-goat-hoof- shoes-golden-globes/.

Borelli-Persson, Laird. “Maison Margiela Spring 1993 Ready-To-Wear.” Vogue, November 10, 2015. https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-1993-ready-to-wear/maison- martin-margiela.

Brown, Emma. “Beyond the Margiela Myth.” Interview, April 21, 2015. https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/alison-chernick-the-artist-is-absent.

Chitrakorn, Kati. “Why Margiela’s Tabi Boots Is Minting Money.” Business of Fashion, February 27, 2019. https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/why- fashion-loves-the-margiela-tabi-boot.

Cunningham, Bill. “The Collections.” Details, September 1989. Quoted in Francesca Granata. “Bill Cunningham on Deconstructivist Fashion.” The Fashion Project, June 27, 2016. https://www.fashionprojects.org/blog/2016/6/27/bill-cunningham-on- deconstructivist-fashion.

Davies, Dean Mayo. “Maison Martin Margiela: clinical precision.” Dazed Digital, January 23, 2013. https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/15478/1/maison-martin- margiela-clinical-precision.

Fisher, Sammi. “Tabi Boots Take Over Parsons.” Free Press, December 18, 2018. http://www.newschoolfreepress.com/2018/12/18/tabi-boots-take-over-parsons/.

Frankel, Susannah. “The Woman Behind Margiela.” New York Times, February 6, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/06/t-magazine/jenny-meirens-margiela- interview.html?mtrref=www.google.com&assetType=PAYWALL.

Homan, Shannon. “The Dark Side of Fashions Most Divisive Shoe.” Spark Magazine. May 17, 2019. https://www.sparkmagazinetx.com/stories/the-dark-side-of-fashions-most- divisive-shoe.

Johnson-Wheeler, Lara. “Why Margiela’s Tabi Boots Are Still Dividing Opinion, 30 Years On.” Vogue, March 1, 2018. https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/what-to-know- about-margiela-tabi-boots.

Kilcooley-O’Halloran, Scarkett. “The Meaning of Margiela.” Vogue Magazine, October 18, 2012. https://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/the-meaning-of-margiela.

Lewis, Jeremy. “A Peek Behind the Martin Margiela Mystique.” The Cut, April 17, 2015. https://www.thecut.com/2015/04/peek-behind-the-martin-margiela-mystique.html.

“Maison Margiela and Reebok Reveal Classic leather Tabi in ‘Bianchetto’.” Hypebeast, January 14, 2021. https://hypebeast.com/2021/1/maison-margiela-reebok-classic- leather-tabi-bianchetto.

“Maison Martin Margiela | The Cult of Invisibility - Part One.” Business of Fashion, October 28, 2009. https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/maison-martin- margiela-the-cult-of-invisibility-part-two.

Moran, Justin. “The Devil Wears Margiela: Nicola Formichetti on Transforming Cody Fern.” Papermag, January 6, 2019. https://www.papermag.com/nicola-formichetti-cody- fern-2625385571.html?rebelltitem=11#rebelltitem11.

“One to make at home.” A Magazine, 2021.

Peoples, Landon. “Cody Fern, Troye Sivan: The Rise of Queer Fashion At The Golden Globes.” Refinery29, January 7, 2019. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/01/220938/queer-fashion-golden-globes- cody-fern-troye-sivan.

Petrarca, Emilia. “John Galliano’s New Podcast Is Fashion ASMR.” The Cut, June 22, 2018. https://www.thecut.com/2018/06/john-galliano-margiela-podcast.html.

Pike, Helena. “The Luxury Brand Balancing Act.” Business of Fashion, January 18, 2016. https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/global-markets/the-luxury-brand- balancing-act.

Scott, Ellen. “Margiela’s Tabi boots, which make your feet look like goat’s hooves, are predicted to be a big trend in 2019.” Metro, January 8, 2019. https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/08/margielas-tabi-boots-make-feet-look-like-goats- hooves-predicted-big-trend-2019-8320821/.

Singer, Olivia. “The Tale of Margiela's Tabi Boot.” AnOther, September 01, 2015. https://www.anothermag.com/fashion-beauty/7721/the-tale-of-margielas-tabi-boot.

Tong, Jasmine. “What Are Those Golden Globe ‘Goat Shoes’?” Papermag, January 7, 2019. https://www.papermag.com/goat-shoes-golden-globes-cody-fern- 2625300234.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1.

Zhang, Leslie. “Delicately Heinous: The Unlikely Success of the Margiela Tabi.” Heroine, October 13, 2017. https://www.heroine.com/the-editorial/margiela-tabi.

Website content

Antwerp Fashion Department. “The Fashion Department.” Accessed April 19, 2021. https://antwerp-fashion.be/about/.

MargielaTabi1 (@margielatab1). Instagram channel. Accessed May 20, 2021. https://www.instagram.com/margielatab1/.

MoMA. “Martin Margiela. Tabi Boot. 1989-2008.” Accessed April 19, 2021. https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/43/688.

The Museum of Modern Art. “Items: Is Fashion Modern?” Accessed May 20, 2021. https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1638.

The Museum of Modern Art. “Tradition Challenged In Museum of Modern Art Exhibition, Are Clothes Modern?” Accessed May 20, 2021. https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_press-release_325448.pdf.

Videos

Arte. “Anti Fashion 90s.” 25.08.2017. Video, 54:42. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kle_lPRtNs&t=188s&has_verified=1.

Fashion Channel. “Martin Margiela Fall 2000/2001 Paris – Fashion Channel.” 08.06.2018. Video, 15:47. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0hhCsc4GXQ&t=97.

Gallucks. “Margiela sent me tabi boots? you’ve goat to be kidding me.” April 29, 2019. Video, 11:18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPYiQJ50DuI&t=1s.

Mad Recital. “Maison Martin Margiela Fall-Winter 1998.” 07.08.2019. Video, 3:29. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9AICfEfHaw&t=1s.

Maison Margiela. “Maison Margiela Artisanal Co-Ed Collection Autumn-Winter 2020 | S.W.A.L.K.” 17.07.2020. Video, 52:32. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCnbjRlICSQ&t=1793s.

MMM Shows. “Maison Martin Margiela SS1989 (complete show).” 2017. Video, 48:00. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5sixdc.

PrestyGomez. “Derrida - defining deconstruction.” 2009. Video, 2:19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgwOjjoYtco&t=9s.

The Museum of Modern Art. “Is fashion modern? | HOW TO SEE the Items exhibition with MoMA curator Paola Antonelli,” 2017. Video, 9:57. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HQBHONu0J8.

Archives

Los Angeles County Museum of Art. “Pair of ‘Tabi’ Boots.” Accessed May 20, 2021. https://collections.lacma.org/node/212294.

Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. “Boots.” Accessed May 20, 2021. http://fashionmuseum.fitnyc.edu/view/objects/asitem/search$0040/2/dynasty- desc?t:state:flow=03b0ad5a-06aa-4a0f-b478-f19a3a2c6077.

Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. “Boots.” Accessed May 20, 2021. http://fashionmuseum.fitnyc.edu/view/objects/asitem/search$0040/1/dynasty- desc?t:state:flow=03b0ad5a-06aa-4a0f-b478-f19a3a2c6077.

Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences. “Pair of women’s boots by Martin Margiela.” Accessed May 20, 2021. https://collection.maas.museum/object/153228.

RISD Museum. “Women’s Tabi boots c. 1999.” Accessed May 20, 2021. https://risdmuseum.org/art-design/collection/womens-tabi-boots-2010242.

Appendix

Interview Transcripts

Interview Transcript Marieke Content Writer Google Hangout Munich - Stockholm Date: 21.01.2021 Duration: 00:28 hours

A: Can you tell me the story of when you first time that you came across Margiela and his designs?

M: I first came across Margiela through a friend of mine, Rich Mnisi a South African designer. I am South African. He is really incredible. Him and Thebe Magugu are really the brightest stars of African fashion. They have both thought me quite a bit about fashion and they introduced me to the Antwerp Six. I am really obsessed with the idea and the kind of legacy of them, the idea of these friends who all studied together and do all these amazing things. The story of Margiela in particular became even more intriguing to me. I work in luxury fashion, I work at MyTheresa as a content writer and I am definitely drawn to designers who have a flair of storytelling and narrative but isn’t involved with who they are. I have for example never

75 been connected to someone like Karl Lagerfeld, who is almost bigger than the brand. I love the fact that there are only five photos available from Margiela. The more I got into his thinking and the concepts, the more I knew that this was a brand that I really wanted to be a part of.

A: Do you remember the first time that you came across the Tabi boots in particular?

M: I will never forget the first time I saw them in real life. It was at the Margiela store in Munich. We do not have Margiela in South Africa at all. We only have a Gucci, a Prada and a Dolce Gabbana store with limited stock in Cape Town. So, the first time I moved to Europe three years ago, I would go into luxury stores just to see the products in real life. I went to the Margiela store in Munich and the basement you go in and they had all these displays of all the different shoes, the boots, the sneakers, the loafers, the ballet pump. I just fell in love.

A: Were you specifically looking for the Tabi Boot in that store?

M: Yes. I just went there to see them for myself. To know what the leather feels like, what they feel like when trying them on. I immediately tried on a pair. And I immediately felt like a presence within myself, when I wore them, when I put them on. I did not just put on another pair of ankle boots. I could immediately feel a point of difference, although my pair was just a plain black leather boot, a point of difference. You feel like you are part of a club almost. It’s like you are speaking to people who are maybe likeminded to you. That’s one of my favorite things about the Tabi boots. People are rather opposed or confused by them, or they love them. And you can kind of find like-minded people by wearing them.

A: So, you went inside and immediately tried them on?

M: Yes, I wanted to know what the toe feels like. I find them incredibly comfortable. That is the first thing people ask me after they ask me: What’s going on here? The second question is: Are they comfortable? And I find them so comfortable. I even wear my Tabi socks just like this, and I do tell everyone who wants to buy them: Get the Tabi socks because having the the special Tabi socks is pretty important. I wear them all the time. I think that when I researched a little bit about them, a part of them is based on reflexology that separating your two toes is good for your creativity and thinking. I kind of believe into it now.

A: Does it happen often, that people ask you about the shoes while you are wearing them?

M: Always. I live in Munich where people do not really speak to each other but that is definitely something that stranger come up to me and say: I do not understand your shoes. I have definitely had little children be like: Mommy, she has hooves. German people are quite bland, asking: ‘What are those?’ and ‘Why are they like that?’ I also got the soles covered for the winter and I took them to this old man who has his little shoe shop and the moment I put them down, I could see the confusion in his eyes but at the same time he was so excited about them. He was like: What are these, I have never seen them in my life before. I explained it to him, and he made such an effort to get it just right around the toe, that was really sweet.

A: Do you remember the reactions of friends and collogues when you began to wear them?

M: Friends and colleagues love them. Some of them do not like them too much but most of my friends are Margiela fans. Some of them have the loafers, everyone has a style that they like most. I would also like to get the flats next and really wear them all the time.

A: How did you decide for the leather ankle Tabi boot?

M: I always wanted a black leather ankle boot because I think that is something that everyone should have in their wardrobe. But I really wanted them to be the Tabi boots. I just was lucky as I purchased them four years ago when they were not that popular as they are now. And they were on the MyTheresa sale and when I added the staff discount and got them for 200€. They would never go on sale now, there is such a boom in the market at the morning for them. I was so happy.

A: How did you feel when the package arrived, and you tried them on?

M: Oh my gosh, I called a friend of mine, who is a stylist in the Netherlands, and I had my video call on when I opened them. And I haven’t taken them off since. Honestly, I wear them more than any other shoe. I love them. (break) I always feel powerful and amazing. I feel like myself when I wear them, more than in any other brand.

A: Why do you think is that?

M: I think it is because of my personal relationship to fashion. To me, fashion is so much more than just consumerism and clothing. It is that, but it can also be a reflection of politics, an

77 aesthetic expression as a way to advertise yourself to other people and find hindered spirits, it can be odd, it can be history, continued references. And to me, all of this is in the shoe. It is all I love about fashion, really. And just the fact that Margiela went and took the traditional Japanese split-toe and made it into a heel and made it into the boot and he always kept at it throughout so many different collections. It really feels like equally subversive and timeless. I think that is a very rare balance to find.

A: So, you do not need to be in a certain mood to wear the shoes, but they rather put you in one, did I understand this right?

M: Absolutely. I have some pretty conceptual pieces in my wardrobe that I really need to be in the mood for. I need to feel in a confident kind of way. But even if I am just feeling like, quite casual, I just feel a little bit more confident, a little bit more powerful when I have my Tabi boots on. Definitely. I like wearing them with simple stuff, so that it looks quite simply, like you put any old thing on but when you’re looking closely, there are the split-toes. I love that.

A: Were you interested or drawn to the background of the shoes, the history of them or how they evolved?

M: Yes, I have the Margiela book that has all the Womenswear collections in it and I love looking through that. I love the show in which he painted the soles in red and the shoes left footprints behind. That is definitely a favorite detail of mine.

A: Do you have special memories or specific feelings attached to the shoe?

M: Mhh. (break, silence) I feel fabulous when I wear them. They are definitely a mood lifter for sure. I have so many memories attached to them as of now. On Christmas, we put a champagne glass between the split toe while pouring in champagne in it for example. Memories like that. (break) I think it is just a sense of self and a sense of power. My Tabi boots definitely make me feel like my truest self.

A: Do other pieces of clothing also do this for you?

M: Not to this level. I thought about it a lot. Not with clothing, I must say. This also has to do with shoes being unrelated to weight or how you feel within your body, within your own skin. That is the one beautiful thing with shoes. Footwear has nothing to do with your upper half and how you evolve. It is very unifying in that way.

A: Do you also have a connection to the fashion which Margiela is connected to, the post fashion and its aesthetic?

M: Definitely, it is such an interesting movement. Also, the contemporary designs, like Ann Demeulemeester, I love Helmut Lang and all from this era. I feel like you can buy pieces from that time and wear it now, people would not even guess it is vintage. You can wear any of their styles and people would think it is brand-new. I think it is such a balance to strike. Especially, with the trend driven era now. I really like the sustainable qualities of that era too.

A: Which pair would you purchase next and why? You were talking about the flat ones? M: The flat ones would be my practical choice. My dream pair would be the pink Tabis. I think they are amazing. Also, these very bobby ones with literal heels.

A: What is your overall favorite aspect of the shoe?

M: Of course, the toes. (laughs) It has to be the toes. It makes any silhouette looks so cool, especially with the expanding selection.

A: Is there something else that you think should be discussed concerning the Tabi boots?

M: It is not related to me but something I do wonder about the cultural appropriation properties because they take something from the Japanese cultural. It is something that I am trying to be mindful of. I don’t believe it is appropriating a culture, but I think it is an interesting aspect of the design because it ultimately comes from Japan. That is something I am wondering about. I mean there is always the argument about cultural appropriation versus appreciation. When it comes to appropriation you are in the position to exploiting the oppressed, but I guess historically Japan has not necessarily been oppressed as a nation when you think about them on a global scale. So, there is also that aspect to it.

Interview Transcript Giulia Working in Fashion PR Agency Zoom Call Berlin - Stockholm Date: 27.01.2021 Duration: 00:25 hours

A: Do you remember when you first came across Margiela and his work?

G: I think I saw the Tabi boots some years ago in some magazine online, but I was very young at that age, and I used to live in a small village so first I was like: What are those? (laughs) And then some years later I saw them again and I started to find them more and more interesting. I think that Instagram was a huge part of that. I can’t remember when I started to make these connections and started to see them as the shoes that I see them now, maybe two or three years ago?

A: How do you explain this changing attitude towards the shoe?

G: I think the way I see fashion and the different designers, the craftmanship behind it changed because I know back then when I saw them for the first time, I was maybe 15 or 14 years old, living in this village where I was used to people wearing H&M from head to toe and there was

80 nothing really special or extraordinary about it. But then I got into Fashion Tumblr (laughs) and the more I saw, the more my perception changed.

A: Do you remember the first time you saw the boots in person?

G: Yes, it was in Munich two years ago, in an art gallery. I saw a girl wearing them and that was the first time where I was like: Oh, they look very cool.

A: How and did you decide to buy your pair of Tabi boots?

G: I got them last year as a Christmas present for myself. I think I decided to buy them after I saw the girl in the art gallery wearing them, after I saw them in person. I was always eyeing them but not really sure if I would dare to wear them or if it is something I could include in my everyday wardrobe. But when I saw the girl wearing them just as every other kind of boots are worn, I was thinking: Yes, I could really make it work. So, this was how I decided to go for them, I think that was in summer and shortly before Christmas I bought them.

A: Which pair did you buy and how did you decide for this particular one?

G: Let me show you! I got the white ones because I was thinking to get either the white or the black ones, so that I can use them for every day. So, I was thinking: If they stand out, they stand even more out in white. Now, I would also like to have the black ones.

A: Is it rather one of your go-to-pieces, something you would wear every day or is it reserved for special occasions?

G: It is difficult to say because shortly after I got them, the lockdown happens, and I did not really have the chance to wear them that often because I generally do not wear shoes that often. (laughs) I know that my boss at work does not like them, and we have that dress code so I can’t wear them to work – so five of seven days I cannot put them on. But when I go out or just meet friends on the weekend, I take every chance I can to wear them.

A: Did your boss say something particularly about you wearing Tabi boots?

G: No, not directly to me. But I am working in a Fashion PR agency, and we are having this dress code, so we have to dress clean and black. I think we were talking about them at some point and one of my colleagues said that our boss does not like them. This was before I even got them. I don’t know, maybe it is a little bit too special.

A: How did you feel when you first tried them on?

G: I saw online that you need special socks for them, but I just took a normal sock and made this little cut between my toes and at first it was a little bit difficult to get into them because of that but once I had them on, I just stood in front of the mirror and really liked how they looked on me. (smiles)

A: Could you touch the boots now and describe how it feels?

G: Yes of course. (gets up and goes to her cupboard where the boots are placed on) When I touch the boots, I like that it is not stiff, in opposition to other shoes. It feels very organic, the touch. (sits on the chair and puts one shoe on) When I slip into them, it is a bit weird at first because you have to stretch your toes a little bit. I once had the situation that I wanted to slip into the shoes, but I held my foot in a weird way, especially my toes. And then I got a little cramp in my toes because I was holding them in such a way. I feel like when you have the perfect angle to slide in and once you are in, it does not feel weird at all.

A: Does the feeling differ from other shoes?

G: I get this question asked very often. I think it does not feel very different from normal shoes. You can really get used to it. When I am wearing them, the heel is a little bit more painful, but for me this is the case with heels in general. Not really painful, but it is more the heel that bothers me, if anything. It didn’t influence me when I go out, so there are really no complains I could make when it comes to comfort.

A: How would you describe the feeling of wearing them outside?

G: I remember that one of the first times I wore them outside, I was out with a group of friends and when some of them saw the boots and knew them they were like: Oh, how cool that you

82 have them! I even had a situation some weeks ago, when I was also meeting friends and then there were also friends of them that I have seen on Instagram before but haven’t met in person. And one of them did not know my name but she knew that I had the shoes. I only have one pictures of them online, wearing them and that is from last year, from March or April. So, it was a really long time, but she still remembered them. Besides from that, I sometimes get weird stares from other people but I kind of enjoy them. Especially when I am back in my hometown again, I like to pull them off and enjoy the stares.

A: Can you tell me more about it, about enjoying the stares?

G: I can feel that the people are surprised or maybe even shocked about them because they have never seen the toe before – maybe just like I did when I was fourteen or fifteen and I can imagine that they think: What is she wearing? And I kind of like shocking them a little bit.

A: How did your family react when they saw them?

G: They do not really understand it, but they just let me do what I want to, they do not say anything. I can see from their looks that they do not like them but even with other combinations they found different, they never commented on my clothes.

A: What kind of connection do you have to your hometown?

G: I like it, but it is in the depth of the Bavarian Forest, close to the Czech borders so it is just 20.000 inhabitants, it’s behind the moon. So, even at school I liked to stand out a little bit.

A: How do you feel in the moment when you put them on?

G: Very fashionable. I feel happy about my look and enjoy wearing them. It makes every outfit so special. (break) Even if it just meeting with friends and you do not have to dress up or anything it is this little detail that gives me a mood.

A: Would you purchase another pair of them?

G: If I had the money. I would love to have a black pair but also: Why would you need the same boot in different colors? I would love to, but I don’t think I will, maybe one day when I will have more money.

A: What is your overall favorite detail about the boots?

G: I like, from the side, the toe of course. But also, when you bent them a little bit (she holds the shoe to the camera), the folds on the side, they seem very soft, and they adapt to the movements of your feet when you walk in them.

Interview Transcript Katharina Working for the Austrian Fashion Association Zoom Call Vienna - Stockholm Date: 05.02.2021 Duration: 00:44

A: Can you tell me how you first came across Margiela and his designs?

K: I actually went to a fashion school here in Vienna, it is like a high school, but you go there for one year longer and you get an additional education in fashion. The branch where I went to was more about design, but it was quite focused on handcraft, there was a lot of sewing and this was kind of the main emphasis. But we also had a subject called ‘design theory’ and I had different teachers in this subject but in the beginning, I had a woman as a professor who was very into the Antwerp Six. We used to watch a ton of fashion shows with her in school, which

84 is really nice that we could just watch fashion shows in school. I think she was my first introduction to Margiela, this was the first time I heard of him. I think we watched every single fashion show, and she would give us her input about him as well. I mean I was like fourteen or fifteen at that time and I was definitely not receptive enough for a lot of the concepts, but I was definitely very intrigued from that point on.

A: Do you remember what she tried to convey you, what was so significant about these particular designers and their fashion shows?

K: I think she quite enjoyed this kind of rebellious spirit and also all these deconstructions that they would do. I think she wanted us to, not to do what’s been done before but to, and also do not mimic them in any way but to find our own path and to rethink how things are done. Especially when you are learning a lot of the sewing that gives you a lot of opportunity as well, to experiment and to implement new things. I think she wanted us to think in that direction. Less about the actual look of the clothes, but more about the spirit.

A: Do you remember the first time that you came across the Tabi boots in particular?

K: It was probably in school as well, during my education. But I do not really remember them specifically from that time. I kind of forgot about them, I was not spending many thoughts on them for a while but then they reentered my consciousness while I was living in London. There are obviously so many more stores in which you can actually see these things and they are not just this kind of phenomenon that you just hear about, and you do not really know if they exist. You can go into all of these stores and even if you cannot afford anything you can just look and experience them firsthand. You can also see the difference in the craftmanship. I think for the Tabis it is quite unique that they are really special in their form and in their design but the craftmanship is also really amazing. I feel like not all designer shoes hold up to this standard. I think around this time I got a bit more interested and probably did not see myself wearing them yet. But I was interested and then I came across more and more people who are collectors. And seeing all of their different collections, seeing specific models and seeing how different they can look on different people and how they can adapt to different styles, that was the first time I saw them, and I was thinking: Ah, maybe this is something that I want to wear. And I think I started following this one Instagram account that always shares the pictures of these collections and they would also share sales, when they were on sale somewhere. And that is how I bought my first pair. So, it was kind of an impulse thing, but I was super happy with it.

A: How did you decide for that particular shape? What were your thoughts before buying them?

K: I can show you. (holds her shoes in both of her hands and holds them closer to the camera and keeps them in her hands while talking) The first pair I bought were these, so the classic style, in this nude-ish kind of cool-toned, creamy colors. They are quite neutral. I thought they were a good starting point, just to incorporate into what I already had. I think at the time they had these and they also had black. Those were the two ones that were an option. And I decided to go for these. I don’t know, I always tend to go for the light-colored shoes. Before that I was looking second hand, at different marketplaces but I was never really lucky there. And of course, you can find the super special ones, which are at the end more expensive at the retail price, when you buy them second hand, because they are collector’s items. But I thought this was a great pair to try out and see if I like them. They really fit in super seamlessly with everything.

A: How did you experience the first time you tried them on?

K: Definitely different than I expected. I think this is also the question you get the most when you wear them: Are they comfortable? And it feels very different in the sense that it is not super tight around your foot. You are not constantly reminded of the shape when you wear them. You tend to forget. The partition that goes between your big toe and the rest is not like you’re wearing Flip Flops; it is more like a suggestion of a shape. I was pleasantly surprised, definitely, that it felt natural and not forced. But you also become hyperaware of your toes when you wear them, because in a regular shoe they are kind of stuck together but here you feel individually feel every toe more than you usually would. That was my first impression. (puts the shoes back on the floor)

A: How would you describe this feeling of being super-aware of your toes in the boots?

K: I think it is kind of nice. I actually read about reflexology, it has a purpose because it makes you more grounded to the floor, when your big toe is separate because it gives you more grip. I can feel that when I wear them. It is a nice feeling, especially when I wear the ones with the heels. It gives you extra stability. You don’t feel as warbly as you would feel in a different pair. I like how it feels. I do not know if everyone does, but I think it is nice.

A: Are the Tabi boots a pair that you would wear every day or are they more a piece of special occasions?

K: I think they are one of the most versatile things I have in my wardrobe. Especially shoe- wise. I think they go for everything. The heel is kind of on the verge for me. I can’t walk around with them all day. But just walking around the office and going back home, I do that a lot. It works well for that. And I just wear them with something more casual, a pair of jeans or just a skirt. I also wear them to the theatre or to a nice restaurant. The other pair I have, I think they can just go for everything, they are the most comfortable. Those can really go for everything, walking around, running errands.

A: What is the story behind the second pair?

K: I bought them second hand on Vestiaire. I was looking around, if something would come up in my size and I really wanted the flats. There was something in-between, the medium heel height boots – and they just did not work for me at all, they looked super awkward on my feet, too clunky and they were also black, so maybe this was a reason as well. In comparison to the ones I have, they are not different but they looked so different on my feet so I had to return them. And then the ballet flats came around (takes the ballet flat tabi shoes from the floor and holds them with her hands, looking at them and talking). They are purple, which is probably not a color I would have picked out of a line-up. But I am not opposed to the color at all, so I thought they look great, and the price was also great, so I went for it. And I was really pleasantly surprised by the color. They work really well with a lot of stuff.

A: How does wearing both of them differ?

K: The flats are a little bit more tight. I do not know if it’s visible and I don’t know if it is because they are cut differently, but they are a little bit more compact here (points to the toe- gap of the ballet) while the boots are a little bit more roomy (shows the boots to the camera) But it’s also good because otherwise you would kind of slip in and out. So, I feel a little bit more snug in these and the partition is a little bit more noticeable. I think it is nice, it feels like a little massage sometimes. I have super sensitive feet as well and I never had any issues with any of them, like no blisters, no nothing. Also, because the leather quality is very nice, especially on the sides of the slot, too.

A: Do you remember how it felt to wear the shoes outside for the first time?

K: I remember that I ordered those (points to the ballets) to the office last spring, and I put them on right away. (laughs) I was super pleasantly surprised. They feel a bit like a second skin almost. It is really natural, and they have the same kind of sensation where you feel very grounded and really stable and just ready for anything.

A: Did you get any reactions while wearing them?

K: I can’t remember any comments, but people definitely look at them, always. When I am on the bus or something there are always look that say: Mhh, what’s going on here? But I kind of think that this is what makes them so great. It is just this tiny detail, it is not a huge flashy thing, but it is impossible to ignore for people. And, as you said, it is also impossible not to have an opinion about it. I don’t think that you can be indifferent. You can’t just say: Oh, whatever. You have to have some kind of emotion when you see them. It’s either: ‘Oh my god, this is digusting’ or ‘so weird’ or ‘so interesting.’ The looks are always definitely there when I wear them.

A: Do these looks make you feel uncomfortable?

K: No. It is not like it is my mission in life, but when I get dressed, it feels good to make people feel a little bit uncomfortable around here and maybe make them see something different because here, or in society in general, being dressed well is not hugely important. It is still seen as shallow. If you spend time and attention to how you got dressed and if you put on something that is a little bit different, this is not super well respected, still. And it shows in the way that people get dressed: It is very standard and very low quality for the most part. When I see people in the street, they dress very average, and I think it is good if I do not just blend in and there is something a little bit different going on and maybe someone finds it interesting. I think it is good to disrupt it a little bit sometimes.

A: Do you have any specific memories attached to them?

K: Maybe just a general feeling of when I wear them, that it is something that feels bigger than just my everyday life. I kind of feel connected with all of the other Tabi lovers around the world. I do not come across many of them here. But I think if you meet someone who also has them on it is like an instant connection. It is like: Oh, you know too! It is also nice if you get a

88 compliment of someone, kind of recognizing this detail. It is a bit of connection outside of this grounded and slow way of living here. It injects just a little bit of fun and experimentation and trying something different. I think that is the nicest thing about wearing them.

A: Do other pieces, other garments also do this for you?

K: I like to wear a lot of traditional, Austrian clothes a lot. I really like the Dirndl, the shape. I sometimes think, you know how the characters in cartoon, how they are always in one outfit? I sometimes think: What would be my outfit? And I think it would be a wide, roughly, traditional folklore Tracht kind of blouse. And you definitely do not see this very much in Vienna at all. There is like Vienna – and the rest of Austria. And every citizen is kind of suspicious of one another. And I think this is something quite unique, where I feel a bit more different, special. At the same time, it feels very true to myself, I feel very much like myself. It represents me in a nice, authentic way. That is the first thing that came to my mind right now.

A: Why do you think that the boot became popular in the last years?

K: There is of course always that circularity, that some things, after years, come back to the surface. And I feel like for the Tabis specifically, they are a little bit part of this whole resale and collecting culture that I feel like has gained more attraction in the last years. Young people are collecting a lot more and also trying to get some money out of it. I feel like designers like Raf Simons and Margiela are part of this culture and belong to the products that work really well in that collectability, they are very special models from a specific season, and they create a desirability around them, that people want a very specific pair. They are willing to do anything for it. Also, now with the Internet, you can zoom into every picture, look at every show, find out which item is from which season, you can get very nerdy about it.

A: What are your favorite details about the shoes?

K: (Gets the ballet flat tabi shoes) On the flat, I really love this part. (pointing to the front of the shoe) On a traditional pair, I suppose that is where you would have a little bow. Here it is just a knot. It’s a very small detail but I think that is super lovely. It’s just tight together in a weird wave, which is something I really like. Just the fact that they are the nicest thing I own, definitely, the quality. And also, the lack of quality in other things only becomes really apparent when you see something really immaculate. (puts the ballets down and pulls the boots up from

89 the floor) On the boots, it is the closure, which is very unique. That is also something I did not expect when they arrived, that they would have this hook mechanism, which is really nice and really comfortable. I have never seen this on any other shoe – which I do not really understand because it looks super nice and sleek, and it is really easy to open and just the motion of having them on is actually what keeps them closed. It is just more sturdy than a zip as well. Other than that, they are just super sleek and clean. I think the detail I like most is the little knot on the flats.

A: Have you ever thought about the aspect of cultural appropriation?

K: I thought about it, especially in the recent time. I thought about how it would be perceived if a designer now were to come out with the Tabi boots if there was not this history. And I definitely think there would be a different reaction. But it does not necessarily make sense to compare it in this way because they are a result of a certain time. How I understand it, Martin Margiela was not trying to enrich himself with other people’s conscious but to be quite critical about it and dissect them in a way. I think it is not done with greed and personal enrichment or exploitation in mind. And I think that is the key factor of what we call cultural appropriation now. Because, at least to me, there is nothing wrong with experimenting with different design codes from around the world. Of course, within bounds and without being disrespectful and without trying to have some personal gain out of it.

A: I think all my questions got answered now. But is there anything else we haven’t touched upon, that you are thinking about or that comes to your mind?

K: Sometimes I wonder about if they are going to stay that popular, if they are going down again in popularity, but I do not have any predictions in that sense. But I think it is interesting that they are still this constant for the brand even now, thirty years later, they are still a core piece of the brand. It still does not feel overdone. It still does not feel redundant. It is also one of the few things that haven’t been copied by the high street at all. I don’t even want to say it because I do not want to see any Tabi boots in Zara any time ever. I haven’t thought about it yet, but everything gets copied instantly for super cheap – but for some reason there is a boundary. They do not cross a certain line into mainstream fashion. It probably will be unpopular with a lot of people. I actually saw it on an Austrian marketplace and two women were selling their Tabi boots saying that they wanted to go with the trend, that they bought them in Berlin but did not wear them and are selling them now. I looked at the other things

90 they were selling, and it was totally different stuff, super blingy. It does not really pulvinate after a certain point.

Interview Transcript Robin Stylist Zoom Call Stockholm - Stockholm Date: 17.02.2021 Duration: 00:25

A: Can you tell me how your first came across Margiela and his designs?

R: I was quite young at the time, maybe I was 17 years old or something like that, but I’ve been interested in fashion for such a long time. I’ve always been attracted to designers who are changing the narrative about fashion. The way that he deconstructed already existing garments was really interesting for me because I come from a background where I did not have the money to pursue designing clothing, so I had to do it myself and Margiela and Vivienne Westwood were two of those designers that were really helping me to find a way into the more avantgarde fashions scene. I have always been a true fan about him and what he has been doing for the fashion industry and I think it is interesting how he stayed this anonymous. I really like people with a big integrity, so I think this was the beginning.

A: Do you remember the first time you came across the Tabi boots in particular?

R: Yes, I was in the store named Jus in Stockholm, who was one of the sellers of Margiela. In the beginning I did not understand the aesthetic of the boot, but I saw some specific people wearing them, and as the heel was not so long as normal high heel boots, so I myself like to dress quite gender-neutral, so that was the first time for me to actually have the courage to wear a heel as a man. I decided to look at it and then, you know, during that time it was so complicated and rare to find a black pair in 41, so then I was in London one day and saw a pair in 41 in a window and I went in and bought them directly.

A: Was that also the first time you tried the boots on?

R: No, I have tried them on from friends. But I felt completely fulfilled when I wore them. I felt very completed in my look, that was very interesting. That was when I had already decided, the decision was already made in my head that I was going to buy them. I was just going to see when and how I was going to reach a black pair of 41.

A: Can you describe this feeling of ‘being completed’?

R: I think it was more the courage I got to wear heels as well. Because I have always been liking very long trousers and for me it was very important to find those, which were quite high and I really like underground creepers with that high sole, Eytys started to become really big as well so I really needed something to complete the look. I think that was that. It was one step to enter another step of my self-experience in clothing.

A: Was it just about the heel, so could have other boots also done this for you?

R: It always also about the connection to Margiela. Obviously, you can buy a cheap pair of high heels somewhere else. If you also had the background of Margiela and the input about what he has done for your way into fashion, I think that feeling is more complete if you start to wear what you want to wear. And you wear a designer you really want to wear. It was also the first designer piece I bought from Margiela. I think that was it.

A: You said that in the beginning you felt like the boot was strange to you?

R: I think it was the toe. I do know from history that this model of toes was from worker’s shoes in Japan, and I remember seeing those men who were working on the rooftops wearing them as well. But I did not do this connection fully, but I felt, I don’t know, I thought it was quite a weird shoe maybe. But now when I wear them, it feels so good.

A: What do you perceive the toe when you have the shoe on?

R: When I tried it on for the first time, before that I already had so many discussions with friends and colleagues about how you need to go about the toe. You need to put the finger between the toe and the other ones in your sock, so the sock does not like mess up when you’re walking. (holds his foot into the camera and makes the ‘gap’ between the socks) So I already knew the trick how to wear them as comfortable as possible.

A: How does it feel on your foot when you wear them?

R: I do not think about it at all when I wear them. That’s something really interesting as well, I am not really focused on that, that there is a split between the toes. (talks to his dog)

A: How did you decide for the black ones?

R: I only wear black clothes normally. But I am really, I don’t know if I want to buy one more, but if I would do that, I would probably buy a white pair and destroy them a bit so that it looks a little bit more used.

A: How did it feel to wear them outside for one of the first times?

R: It felt very good. It was in London directly after I bought them. I felt very good.

A: Do you ever get reactions while wearing them?

R: Maybe sometimes because I’m a male with high heels and some people are like: Oh, that is an interesting shoe. But I do know from different kind of people who own a pair that they get more comments than me. Maybe I am not looking that interesting right now but sometimes I am wearing weirder things on my body than on my feet so maybe the focus is on the upper.

A: When you say that the shoe make you feel complete, do you have the same feeling with other garments?

R: Yes, I have this women’s jacket from Comme des Garcons with really nice embroideries all over it and it is quite short and that is also one of the garments that I feel suits my whole look and personality as well. And I like to wear this with long trousers, preferably with MM6 Margiela. That whole silhouette with short, little tighter jacket, heels and longer black trousers is a lock that I am really comfortable with. Maybe I am completed because in the times when you have not been able to pursue these kinds of designer clothing before and now you have yourself a career and have a lot of money and have that what can I say, have that privilege to buy them and maybe this is something that also feels completing. Because as a child and as a young person you were never able to you know, pursue anything of that. I think that everyone who is buying Margiela Tabi boots has some relation to fashion. But I do see that everyone is buying them right now and the shoe is more commercial now than it was before, so I think the target group has expanded.

A: Why do you think that is?

R: I think now, especially because they made the man size on the Tabi model, I think that is maybe the answer.

A: Does this annoy you?

R: A little bit. (laughs) I think a lot of people need to; you know. I mean, everyone can do and buy what they want but there are some specific icon garments where you should maybe have some more information about when you are pursuing them. And that is just my own personal reflection of that situation but maybe and maybe that is why I don’t feel so special anymore to wear them. But for me, I will have them my whole life, but maybe not so much every day. Although I use them quite a lot, I don’t even know but. Yes, I see a lot more people wearing them and buying them as well and selling them. And maybe that is the belief in me. I think that when you buy something, you need to wear it and have it for a long time and not sell it directly after. (takes his dog on his knees)

A: Are the boots something you rather put on every day or for special occasions?

R: Rather every day, I would say. I like to wear them at work. Obviously, I could also wear them when I go out, but I would never club in them because I will not be able to dance the way I want to dance.

A: Because of the heel?

R: Yes, but when I go to bigger events, I have other options for more formal events.

A: Do you need to be in a special mood to put them on or do they rather put you in a mood?

R: Yes, I think I need to be in a special mood to wear them because I like to wear flats. Especially when you are living in Sweden and it is snowy like this, I do not think that it is good to wear them then because it is quite difficult to walk. But I think I need to be in a special mood, a little more excited for the day. And maybe if I had many meetings and stuff, I will put them on to look a little better.

A: Have you got special memories attached to them?

R: I have a lot of memories attached to them, but the thing is that I use them so much that I do

94 not remember the specific one. But the strongest memory I have connected to them is when I bought them.

A: How would you describe the overall feeling when you wear them, when you put them on?

R: The first thing I think of is: Do I have the energy to walk in these shoes all day? The second one is ‘Let’s go’ and the third is: I like how it sounds when I walk on the street. But not anything else, I think. I recently stopped being so super attached to specific items, emotionally. Obviously, if they would be destroyed or someone would steal them from me, I would be really sad.

A: Why don’t you want to be attached to them?

R: Because I just stopped being so attached to fashion overall. This is just my personal reflection on it because I don’t see the point anymore. Obviously, we have many fantastic designers and I love the creativity that fashion is a part of. But when you see it from an environmentalist aspect, I don’t see the point in continuing to produce more clothes. I think also when you start your journey in the fashion industry, you are so excited. But I think that I have been disappointed from the industry here in Sweden. So, I will do my work and I will do the best that I can to change the narrative around it, and I will still be working here but, and that is also for my own well-being, to take a little step back from it. I think that is quite important when you work closely with something that is your passion. I’m just a little tired of fashion right now. I have a friend who was my mentor for many years, we talk about this a lot, about how tired we are.

A: Does this tiredness also reflect itself in the act of getting dressed?

R: Not like that. I really like to dress up and feel good about myself. I am saying so much completely different things right now, but I think that is a quite complex topic we are talking about. I really like to dress up, I really like good clothing, but I do not see, I have maybe not so personal attached feelings anymore for everything regarding it. But I have obviously strong feelings towards the clothing that I have worked to buy. Obviously, I would be sad if they would disappear, but these are still clothes. I think this is the personal development that I worked towards, realizing that these are just clothes, we are not saving any life.

A: I understand. Can I go back to one thing you said? You said that you felt complete and the Tabi boots were the first time you owned a pair of boots with heels. Was this an important moment for your development in relation to wearing certain clothes?

R: I felt so much more confident. That I am the one who is owning that look. And no one else can comment on that and if they want to do that, you’re welcome but I don’t really care. I think the more I wore them, the more I grew. Absolutely, they helped me a lot on that way. That is interesting because I haven’t thought about it that way.

A: What is your overall favorite detail of the shoes?

R: The toe. And also, I really like that detail in the back. What do you call it in English? When you put everything together in the exact way, you’re putting the Japanese shoes together.

A: The hook closure?

R: Exactly, that one is really nice as well. I also like that the heel is quite big. You feel very grounded, and the shoe overall is very comfortable to wear.

A: So, you would say that they are comfortable, overall?

R: I have three pairs of Louboutin’s as well and they are not so comfortable as this pair. But if you walk in these shoes for a whole day, because I put a lot of weight on the toes, so that’s more that. But overall, it is a very comfortable shoe because the leather is really soft. The heel is not that big, so you do not need a big plateau in front of it. So, compared to the other heels I have, they are very comfortable.

Interview Transcript Ann-Sophie Stylist Zoom Call Stockholm – Berlin Date: 18.02.2021 Duration: 00:35

A: Do you remember the first time you came across Margiela and his designs?

AS: Actually, over the Tabi boots. I think it was five or six years ago. I am 26 now. I think I was 17 or 18 years old when I discovered the boot. I mean the shoe exists for very long now. I always found them super inspiring because they are so special. But as you know they are also very expensive, so at the time when I discovered them, I could not afford them. But I always had them in mind, and I knew that I would have to have these shoes in my life. For me, the black Tabi boots with the 8cm heel is the most beautiful high heel boot. That is also why I decided to buy them in a store. I bought them at the Voo Store in Berlin, because I think it is a different experience, when you can enter a store and buy them there. I already tried them on before that a couple of times. It was not like I just went in and bought them. As I said, it is pretty expensive. And the moment afterwards felt like a little firework. It was so nice and definitely not the last Tabi shoe I want to buy. I bought myself another version half a year ago, but it won’t be my last because there are so many more shapes and types and colors. It’s definitely something special. It’s not just a shoe, for me at least.

A: Can you explain this a bit?

AS: Just the feeling you get when sliding into the shoe. At first you think: Oh that must be super uncomfortable. Many people cannot imagine this. I always find it super interesting when I meet people who are not in the fashion scene and do not know the shoe at all. They do not know that the toe box is really divided, that there is nothing in-between, that there really is something. Most of the time, I put them off in these situations to show them that there is something between my toes. The feeling is not as strange as many imagine it must be. At the beginning, of course, there was something, but meanwhile I do not even notice it anymore. Also, because not so many people have the shoe it becomes even more special to me. In general, I like to have things that not everybody has. The Tabi boots are one of these things – and that is why they are so special. I do not even wear heeled boots so much, that is why it is also special to me in that way. There are also the men’s Tabi boots that have a 6 cm heel, but I have the normal 8 cm high Tabi. That is already special for me that I wear such a high heeled boot. The passion I have for the shoe shows itself alone in the fact that I buy a boot with such a high heel. But they are actually really comfortable. The heel is very thick, so it doesn’t hurt me while I am walking.

A: You mostly get comments from people inside the fashion scene when you are wearing them?

AS: Not only. It’s funny to observe that. Children, especially children, find them super funny, because it reminds them of hooves, so you realize that they are laughing about you. But it also makes so many people smile or laugh in a good way. People outside from fashion don’t know the shoe, and the shape is completely new to them. And you notice when they think: Oh, that’s interesting. I personally find that pretty cool, that I can make someone smile just because they find the shoes so interesting. That’s wonderful.

A: So, your experiences have been mostly positive?

AS: Yes, only that one time with the kids has been negative. They just laughed, nothing else. I wear these shoes full of pride, so there were never any negative reactions. Of course, there are people that seem to be a bit irritated, but I usually take the shoe off then, just to shoe that there is a gap in between. Most of the people I meet find them interesting, have never seen them before – and that is really beautiful.

A: How was it for you to try them on for the first time?

AS: That was a while ago, when I haven’t lived in Berlin yet, but I already read and did some research about the shoe. I wanted to know about the toes, if something really lays between them. I did not know it because I haven’t seen them yet, but I did some research and found out. The first time I tried them on was nevertheless an experience. Because I did not know the feeling. Maybe one remembers the socks with the split toes that one wore as a child. I found them super uncomfortable. Now I have these Tabi socks, where the great toe is separate from the rest and I do not find that uncomfortable at all. Of course, it is weird in the beginning but after ten minutes, I got used to it. When I put the shoes on, I usually dress very plain and simple, because I want the focus to lay on the shoes. I think they are beautiful, so they have to be in focus, they are so special. But it is also weird because the foot is not the most beautiful part of the body. But that is how you can make this part more beautiful, which is nice. Also, the purple one that I bought (holds a purple shimmering flat Tabi shoe to the camera). I mean this one is special too, so I would also wear something simple with it. I was sure that I would like the first one to be that standard shape in black. The first one had to be the black one, that I could wear with everything. The following one, I have one in mind already, would be in another color.

A: Is there a difference between the black one and the purple one when having them on?

AS: Yes because of the heel. The second one that I got is even more comfortable because it is flat. You also feel the split-toe even less in the flat ones. In the heeled boots your weight is moved forward, as the heel is high. So, you feel the split-toe a bit more, but not in the way that makes you feel uncomfortable. That was actually funny because I did not have tabi socks in the beginning and I could not wear them with my normal cotton socks. I had to take a size bigger although I have very small feet, because otherwise they would not fit me. It’s definitely easier with the Tabi socks.

A: Are the shoes an everyday piece or something that is reserved for special occasions?

AS: As it is so special to me, I don’t want it to be damaged. Because of Corona, I did not have the chance to wear them as often. It’s not like I will just keep it at home and say: You will only be worn to certain occasions, it’s not like that. But I wear them with caution. They are very expensive, and I think they just don’t work well for every occasion. When I meet a friend in the park to go for a walk, I don’t want to put them on. But when I meet her in a bar or go to drink a coffe, it’s something different. It’s not a shoe I want to put on to go for a walk. They would also probably become uncomfortable at one point. When it comes to the flat ones, I only

99 bought them a couple of months ago, so I have not worn them at all yet. But I also want to keep them for more moments that are special to me.

A: Do you think that is also dependent on your mood?

AS: Yes. I would not wear them when I feel bad, which thankfully does not happen so much, because you just stand out. One might think that Berlin is so open minded, and everyone tolerates everything, but you definitely get some sort of reaction, if you want it or not. I mean, how I get dressed generally depends on my mood. Sometimes I just don’t want to be seen and sometimes I want to get dressed like: Here I am. For these days, the boots are perfect. As they are so special, it really depends on my mood.

A: Do you have any special memories attached to the boot?

AS: Two. One was negative and one was more positive. I was sitting with a friend in a café and I had the black pair on my feet. An older lady walked by. Apparently, she found the shoe so super interesting that she walked by three times. Each time she laughed and the third time, she approached me and asked what kind of shoe that is, telling me how super interesting the boots are looking and how nice she finds them. These questions, coming from an older lady, were so, so cool. She was also dressed very neatly. The ability to make someone smile is pretty cool. The negative experience was with some children in the metro. They were permanently focused on my shoes, they laughed, and they were screaming: Hooves, Hooves! I know that they are kids, but I would still expect a more respectful interaction. Apart from that, I only had positive resonances. Also, the feeling when I bought them, the feeling right after that was also wonderful. Often, when you really want to have something and you buy it, it loses some of its charm after a couple of weeks and you’re craving for the next thing. It’s not like that with the Tabi boots at all. I am still super happy that I got them, and they did not lose any charm. Because I wanted to have the boots for so long, and all my friends knew about it as I annoyed them for years, so they were also happy for me. (laughs) Which is pretty funny.

A: How was the experience of putting them on for the first time afterwards?

AS: I remember it very vividly. I just bought them and went out of the store into the inner courtyard behind it. So, I went there with my friend, put the shoes off that I was wearing, put them in my bag and put on the Tabi boots. I felt so special and took a picture right away. It was

100 not like I felt better than someone else or something, it was just the fulfillment of a personal dream, so the feeling I got afterwards was just good. I also did not care about anything that day, I walked a lot, from Neukölln to Alexanderplatz, where my friend’s phone was stolen, so we also went to the police station there. I had the shoes on for the whole day and I was filled with excitement, so I did not care if they would hurt my feet, but they were actually super comfortable. Then I went home, and I put them on my shelf. It is not a shoe that you just put on your shoe rack; it has to be seen.

A: Do you have other pieces that are also this special to you?

AS: Not in the way the Tabi boots are. I also buy myself other designer pieces now and then, but there is not as much passion behind it. I wanted to buy myself a pair of Tabi boots six years ago and I only bought it last year. With other pieces, I maybe think about them for two months before buying them or not. This is where the difference lays maybe. I had the idea for so long and for me, this is the most beautiful high heel boot there is. It is something else than a pair of trousers that maybe also costs 400€. It’s different because I also wear these more often. It’s also very important for me that they are in these dust-bags when I don’t wear them. Taking care of them, is very important to me. That is less so with other pieces, it’s not so intense. Of course, I also make my mind up before buying something, but with the shoes it’s more special. It is definitely the most special piece of clothing I own.

AS: You said that you are also planning to buy another pair?

AS: Yes, the ballerinas with the small heel in metallic blue. It shimmers (points to the purple pair) as these ones, but they come without any strap, it’s like a ballerina just with a small heel and a little bow in the front, which is super kitschy, but I think you can style it in a cool way. It really stands out. Usually, I do not like ballerinas at all, they are horrible, and actually a No- Go in fashion, I think. But the color and the heel make them different, and you could style them very cool with flared jeans that are a little bit ripped, so they do not look so frumpy anymore. The color, together with the toe-gap makes it special and more than just a normal ballerina as one knows them, which are really horror. I generally think that a lot of things are cool depending on how you style them. But not a normal ballerina, no. But the Tabi boots, yes. Another thing is that, sometimes, I am just getting tired of some of the designer pieces I bought in the past. Usually, I sell them at one point and buy something new for the money. This will never happen with the shoe. I know that. It is an evergreen and I do not think it will ever move

101 out of fashion. Not that I always have to be in fashion, I just think that it is a piece that will always be there. It always reappears in new shapes, colors, patterns and fabrics. I would also like my boyfriend to get the Loafer Tabis. He also likes them a lot, but they are pricy as well. I think the Tabi shoes also look great on men. It would be sweet if he would also have them. All in all, I’m happy I have them, although Corona did not give me the chance to wear them that often in the evenings. I would never wear them in the club though, but probably in a bar.

A: You said that you would never sell them, can you explain this a bit?

AS: I feel special when I wear them, because it is a shoe that not everybody owns. Also, the fact that I saved the money to buy them, and it was not just something I randomly bought makes it so special to me. It was a long process. It is that it is the feeling and the look.

A: What is your overall detail of both of your Tabi shoes?

AS: I like the white Margiela stitch. (holds both shoes in the camera), and the way they are closed. I do not know so many people who own a pair of them, but to me this seemed really unusual. The funny thing is that I usually do not even close it, but it still feels stable to walk in them. I have never seen a closure like that. It also looks different when I put them on, although you can’t really see it, but you can see it when you sit. Many people asked me: Wait, is there no zipper? Then, of course, the favorite detail of all tabi-lovers (runs with the fingers over the toe-box and in between it with the fingers). I feel like the shoe also gets nicer with time. Not that it is particularly worn-out, but there are small folds in the material. I like how that looks.

102

Interview Transcript Alice Fashion/Travel Blogger Zoom Call Berlin – Stockholm, Date: 23.02.2021 Duration: 00:41h

AL (Alice): (holds the boots into the camera): I can show them to you right away if you want to?

A: Oh, there is an embroidery on the shoe, right?

AL: Yes, there is. I don’t know if you can see, because it is black on black, but do you see this arabesque pattern? (turns the boot in different directions) I think I have some pictures on the blog, I can send them to you so you can see the embroidery in a better way. So, these were my first pair of Tabis. I mean the simple leather ones are really nice and the prices for Tabi boots are quite high. I was still a student, without a side job because my studies were really time consuming. So, I knew someone working in the Margiela store, the only one in Germany, in Munich. Those were fifty percent off plus, since that girl worked there, I got extra 25 percent off, so I think overall I only paid 180 € for those? I love those because they are not the normal ones. I mean, I still want to get the classic ones. I also have the classic ones here, but with a lower heel. But I love the material, it’s like velvet, black, super nice obviously, I would not wear them during rain or something, I think they are sensitive just because of the fabric. Since I only wear black anyway, I did not want to get any with splatters, or any crazy ones, so I thought these are perfect and they fit my style. I went to the cobbler (holds the shoe’s sole to

103 the camera), which is really nice. He even cut out the toe for me. So, this is perfect, because I am always scared that my shoes will, you know I mean, I use them quite often, so it is better not to ruin them right away.

A: How did the cobbler react when you asked him to cut out the toe?

AL: He was just like: Okay, mhh. He is an old, Lebanese man and when I asked him if he could also cut out the gap, he was like: Yeah, no problem. He was not impressed at all. He was just like: Okay. But I definitely had other sorts of reactions to the Tabis, I mean it is not a regular shoe, that you see every day on every people’s foot.

A: Can you describe some of the reactions you got?

AL: Often people, even my friends sometimes, they are like: Oh, you’re wearing your horseshoes again. Or they call them cow feet shoes, but I don’t care. (laughs) Actually, in the subway there were people pointing at them, laughing at them and they found them really funny, which was really surprising. But most of the time, when people know those shoes, they know Margiela, they know: Yeahh. But I like it when not everyone knows that I am wearing, I don’t know, carrying around a big LV bag, with all the logos on it. So, I am very subtle, that’s why it’s something different. I have a thing for ugly, beautiful shoes. So paradox, but it is what those are.

A: Do you want to tell me the story of the other pair?

AL: Oh yes! These are quite new; I haven’t brought them to the cobbler yet. This one (holds the black velvet Tabi boot with the embroidery to the camera) I think the heel is 7 to 8cm long? I am not an everyday-heel-wearer, and I like to be practical in some ways, especially if I have to go somewhere. So, a high heel is not always so practical obviously. When I saw on Instagram that they now finally have the short heel Tabis, I was like: I need them. Then I looked up the price and I was like: Maybe not now. (smiles) And then I was like: I had a very hard year. Originally, I am from the south of Germany, close to Munich, and I always visit my friends and some family members in Munich. Then, I always pay a visit to the Margiela store. So, when I saw them, I was like: I am going to get them because my year was rough. Why not? So, I was swiping my card and I was like: Yesss. (moves both of her arms up) That was perfect

104 because I thought I needed a shorter version, so it is like an everyday shoe, even though I do not wear them that often because I still need to put the sole on them at the cobbler. This is why they look like it (holds the boots to the camera and points to the sole where there are some scratches), because I went to the Commes des Garcons party in Paris. And it was underground in a garage. Yeah, well. That is the story to it and also – a good pair of black leather ones is always a good choice.

A: Do you remember the first time you came across Margiela in general and the Tabi boots in particular?

AL: It was during my time in university. Since I grew up in a village and there were people who go skiing and whatever and as someone who has a migrant background. – like, obviously, people with a migrant background do not go skiing, this is what posh, white people do, especially in our village. So, I was always trying to find some outlet to discover myself. Whether it was art or fashion especially, and you have nothing to do, it was something different. I was always trying to find myself, partly my of roots, the diaspora, or I am still living in that diaspora of course, I felt like I belonged to fashion. And this is why I started my blog back then when I was 15, 16, so now it is 14 years old. It does not concentrate that much on fashion anymore but still. Back then, I was collecting the regular Chanel, Dior fashion kind of thing, cutting things out from the magazine. And then, after I started fashion design in Munich, I realized: I always saw myself going into haute couture, I wanted to have my atelier with the style of Dior, really traditional, female clothing, elegant. Until I discovered that this is not really my style. Of course, it is beautiful, but it was more through the process of studying fashion design and discovering new designers that really fulfilled the urge of my design aesthetic, let’s say so. I discovered that I love black, I love dressing practical, and then the pressure of being a fashion blogger, of course, you always need to have the new stuff and be on trend. And I questioned that. I questioned myself and asked myself: Do I want to follow those fashion trends? Is this really my style or is it only because I see it in the magazines or on other bloggers or is it because it is on sale in Zara, and everybody is running to Zara? So, I not only questioned the sustainability, but the whole industry behind it as well. Then I came across Martin Margiela, Issey Miyake, Comme des Garcons, Yohji Yamamoto. Those are my favorite designers. The idea, the feeling, and just the way of how those fashion designers try to convey all those emotions towards what is fashion and what is wearable, like deconstruction. I still remember when I learned about Comme des Garcons tumorlike collections with all the bulbs and stuff, it

105 was the ugly things that I was drawn to, the non-traditional ugly things. Or what people think is ugly. And then I came across the Tabi boots and then I reminded myself, that I started with drawing, comics, manga and animes and Japanese pop culture, so Tabis originated from Japan, so I thought: It’s so weird and so familiar but then it’s so strange. So, when I first saw them, I was like: Yes, that is it. Maybe I found myself in there. Because partly and obviously I am German, I was born in Germany. But then again, my roots are in China and Vietnam, and I feel deconstructed, not belonging here, not belonging there. Maybe there are similarities with feeling deconstructed but then also, trying to express that way in clothing. I mean, it’s still a political statement as well. Back then in my hometown did not take that serious. The things that I was doing. I think there is more to it than just the fact that you do not want to run around naked.

A: Can you explain this a bit further? They did not take your blog serious?

AL: Yes, in general my dream to work in fashion. Even the way I styled myself which was really interesting. Back then I wore a lot of colors, a lot of accessories, I cut my own hair. Like, I have no idea how I did that. But you know what I mean, expressing myself back then in the village, on the countryside, it was something so rare. I was literally a paradise bird in that village, surrounded by the mountains. My neighbors had cows, that is how countryside it was. And I was wearing colorful things, shorts, heels, wearing affordable brands, fast fashion brands. I spend a lot of money on that. After working at the ice cream shop all summer, I then spend all that money in Munich which was two hours with the train. So, it is quite interesting because back then in the village people had and have other priorities than fashion.

A: So, for you, fashion is a way to express yourself?

AL: Yeah, to break out, to be non-confirmative in this society that I was growing up in. I think this is why I feel so drawn to things that are a little bit outrageous to the normal person. I found my style now after a while, I am 31 now and I feel like I am getting to know myself better with every year. Some might find that earlier, but I was definitely not feeling like this when I was 21. So, for me it is also about: I am not just wearing black and white trousers and a white shirt, there is more thought to it. It’s not only being a sustainable aspect but also a fashion statement. I mean, the Tabi boots are a statement. And I realized for myself that I like it more subtle but not boring. Back then when I was mainly a fashion blogger, I was someone who used to do all

106 the trends. Even now I sometimes question myself: Am I influenced by the trends that I am surrounded with, because I am still with friends, with a lot of influencers. I wanted to show through me, who is also only wearing one color, that you can be sustainable in a different way. You do not have to buy fast fashion or go shopping every day. Maybe invest in one piece and still do not look boring, timeless. It’s more like I can show you with a small, subtle and selected wardrobe that you can still be fashionable or work in fashion. So, now I am not that loud anymore. I am still a loud person, talking loudly. But as a teen, of course, every teenager is like that, you are expressing yourself by, I don’t know, shouting, coloring your hair and your parents hate it, partying. And now I am like, I am shouting in a subtle way.

A: Do you remember how it felt when you first tried them on?

AL: I thought: It feels so weird between my toes. And then: Oh, it is so comfortable. People keep asking me that as well: Is it comfortable? It’s damn comfortable! I mean, are Flip Flops comfortable? I guess so. So, I really love them because they are so comfortable. That was the first thought. When I wear them, I feel a little bit more seen, more aware of myself. Even though I have the short Tabi heel boots (takes the short heel boots in her hands and continues talking while holding them), you can wear them every day. Still, I only pull them out if I want to feel special. There is something dressy about it. It is like a confident boost; it is like look at me. It kind of feels like that. So even though they are subtle, they are kind of giving me that: Yeah, I’m-cool-feeling.

A: So, it is a piece that you have to be in a certain mood for?

AL: Definitely. I need to feel like that. I would not wear them for a walk through the park with friends because then I think more of the practical side. It’s really an occasional shoe for me. Maybe it is something that you keep seeing and you keep wearing and after a while they lose the special thing, because you keep seeing every day? They are so precious to me; I do not want to show people these shoes every day. I want to show them on special occasions. I don’t want them to think: Oh, those again.

A: So, you also need to be in a certain mindset, where you want to be seen?

107

AL: Yes, totally. When I think of that lady that laughed at my Tabi shoes – in this moment I was like: Yeah, just laugh about me. But still, I of course, fell a bit uncomfortable. There are days when you feel quite sensitive about it, so definitely. I don’t know why, but in some countries, I feel comfortable wearing it. I am quite often in Japan and there, I feel super comfortable wearing them. But I think that is a cultural thing. And in Germany it is also another thing because people like to talk, people like to point out, and be rude. Sometimes I am okay with it and sometimes it can ruin my day. Maybe it is the risk that I don’t want to take, additionally. Which is quite sad, because we should wear whatever we want. And I am not judging people, but I cannot guarantee that people do not judge me. I don’t know, I think I would not wear them in Neukölln, or maybe in Wedding.

A: Is it because of the audience, the people?

AL: Maybe, I live in Prenzlauerberg, I think all the Hafermilch-Muttis would look at this as well. So maybe it is the audience, but maybe also … (break) Yes, probably, it must be. I cannot think of anything else right now. I would love not to think like that, it’s a prejudice. I would like not to think about other people’s opinions, but I guess that is more a personal thing.

A: Is there a difference between wearing the Tabi boots you have?

AL: Yes. I mean, those are more dressy, those are really for those special moments when you want to dress up or go to a fashion party or something. (holds the Tabi boots with the high heels and the embroidery in front of her and looks at them) And those, I would wear every day (puts the high heels back on the table and holds the flat ones to the camera). But maybe that is because of the high heel. But I was already walking around them in London for a whole day and it was still okay, but I think those are more for celebrations, parties.

A: Do you have any memories attached to them?

AL: Somehow really Berlin. The girl that used to work in the Margiela store, she also moved to a shared apartment with me to Berlin. We decided very spontaneously. I was like: I’m going to move to Berlin. And she said: I always wanted to move to Berlin. So, we said: Okay, let’s go. She has the same Tabi boots and other Tabi boots as well and sometimes we were wearing them both. My first apartment was on Karl-Marx-Allee, so I remember very well walking in

108 those, and it was a very long walk because I did not know the metro stations and so on, so that is what I think is a Berlin memory that I have. A: What is the overall feeling you attach to them, you said that it is confidence?

AL: And it’s, when I look at them, it is somehow a little bit nostalgic, a little bit sentimental as well. When I wear them and when I look at them, I think about how I always wanted to work at Margiela and go into the direction to a designer like Margiela. It is also connected for me to the designer and his design philosophy. To create something that is not necessarily famous or well known, or not so mainstream, kind of like the essence that I wanted to portray or try to follow. Something special that is loved by few but maybe not known by all.

A: When you look at them now, what are your favorite details?

AL: (holds the boot close to the camera and points with the finger to the toe-box) The toe (grins) I guess that is what everybody says. In this model I also really like the fabric. The easy way of closing the shoe with the hooks, but I think with this model it was the fabric, the way it feels when you touch it, the velvet and the embroidery that you can feel when you touch them. Maybe also the heel, it was something that you have not really seen back then? It also makes you feel stable. I ran with the Tabis, I could run with them.

A: Would you buy another one?

AL: Yes, I was looking at them. A silver one, a flashy piece, sequined, and I saw them on Instagram in a secondhand shop. Definitely not this year, but those are the ones that I think are really nice. If you have a black dress and those flashy ones I think that can look really nice. Sequined, flashy, silver Tabi boots? Really nice. That one.

A: Is there anything you find important that I haven’t asked you about?

AL: Let’s say, maybe what is funny as well, it is just a sidenote but, when you see other people wearing Margiela and you’re wearing

Stockholms universitet/Stockholm University them as well it is SE-106 91 Stockholm like an internal Telefon/Phone: 08 – 16 20 00 www.su.se connection.

109