THE SLOW BURNING SUPERNOVA

A homage to French born Cubist Francis Picabia is the core reference of London based footwear designer Behnaz Kanani’s A/W 09/10 collection.

“Hold up meth lips”, Imelda hears you scream “why A/W 09/10 and not S/S 10?”

As the pendulum swings towards the independent footwear designer (a response to the S/S 10 catwalk affront) the Persian born Behnaz Kanani is set to become a playa-playa next season and the Despotic Queen feels since I’ve overlooked (read forgotten) to blog her A/W 09/10 collection that before we shift into drive I want to reverse (a season).

And to paraphrase an out of control teen slut Carmen, “It’s my haute blog and I’ll do what I want”

If you need a quick refresher then Imelda suggests you click HERE otherwise let’s shut up and drive!

Despite her impressive pedigree and high profile stockists, including Harvey Nicholas and Dover Street Market, the Cordwainers trained Kanani is still a relative unknown designer.

 

Kanani straddles a curious divide.  Her hand-made footwear is only available in limited numbers, yet unlike say, Spanish born, French based cobbler Vicente Rey her footwear is purpose built for world domination.

While her fellow Brit cobblers Kirkwood and Skovgaard are drilling the US market, Kanani is on the slow burn - which the Despotic Queen imagines is precisely how this conundrum likes to keep her ascension.

It’s not that commercial success eludes Kanani, rather she has (like her design process) a timeless approach to building her eponymously named brand, which Imelda speculates was inherited from her time working for venerable houses like Bruno Magli and Jimmy Choo, where the ‘art’ of shoe making is, at times, overshadowed by the bottom line.

That said, Kanani is no slouch when it comes to marketing and brand identity. This season she debuts her logo (seen below) that the designer says is “like a discreet point of light, a hallmark for the brand”

 image credit / The Business of Fashion

Titled ‘A Scent of a Women’ Kanani says inspiration for her A/W 09/10 collection came from 'Evoked memories, the perception of expanding matter in constant movement and the rhythm of impulse'

 

Crafted from the finest crocodile, lizard, soft calf skins and nubuck, Kanani’s sculpted heel platforms are complimented by a palette of ‘black, unusual sangria and cool grey in nuances of arsenic, taupe and slate combined with burnt orange and hues of old lavender’

 

A focal point of the collection is Kanani’s sculpted heels which remind the Despotic Queen of a hybrid of Thea Cadabra’s ‘Maid Shoe’ and Stéphane Couvé Bonnaire’s witty giraffe heel pump from 1996. However, Kanani describes the heels as a design that ‘translates the essence of a woman into elegant curvaceous shapes’ and ‘silhouettes that echo and are in harmony with the feminine body’

 

Comments

[Sally]

All gorgeous, but the red set have stolen my heart. Especially the booties - YUM!

[Anna Jane]

It's surprising this Kanani is still a relatively unknown designer because these shoes are gorgeous. I love the heels. I would so wear the two white pairs!

- Anna Jane xxx
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