Trust The Process: Safa Sahin and Balmain
Freedom of Expression
Words by Sian Lori
Balmain’s Head of Sneaker Design just released a first-look at an insane new shoe for the house’s pre-collection, releasing next year.
Working with Balmain over the last two years, Safa Şahin is an artist turned footwear designer, and former Nike employee, that has cultivated a devout following for his surrealist renders, samples, and wearable footwear iterations. Take one look at his Instagram and you’ll see Şahin’s eye for design is concerned with the weird and wonderful, manipulating elements of nature and biology to jewellery and inflatables into sneakers, sandals and stilettos. His work actively pushes against the limitations of footwear design and commercial viability, and working with Balmain has only enabled him to push further.
In 2020, Balmain released their BBOLD collection of Men’s and Women’s footwear. The collection is designed with the modern consumer in mind; a consumer that dares to be bold, looks to the future and pushes against the status quo. Each rendering of the BBOLD set architectural uppers atop a semi-split outsole, to create a distinctive cushioned platform that referenced walking on the moon. This new development moves beyond the space-age into the alien. The unique sole construction returns in a tapered rocket shape, exaggerating its split sole design in its use of negative space. This negative space offers support for the design’s unique lace-fastening, via what seems to be TPU tubing that emerges from each side and wraps under the shoe. The shoe is completed with familiar codes of the house - metal finishing and an embossed monogram sole - but it’s safe to say it’s unlike anything we’ve seen before.
The wilder footwear concepts that fill our feed rarely have a chance to be realised commercially. Ergonomics aside, this usually comes down to financing as these ideas require time for experimentation and development and often involves complex construction and new technologies. The price point, and resources, of a luxury house, can enable this freedom. Balmain, under the direction of Olivier Rousteing, is a house that understands the value of freedom and daring to break the rules. Rousteing, who emerged as Balmain’s Creative Director at just twenty-five years old and is the highest-ranking person of colour at a Parisian luxury house, has made a name for pushing the conventions of luxury and the elite world of fashion. When streetwear first filtered into the mainstream, and luxury houses toyed with sneakers, their understanding of the culture and even the construction was limited. Rousteing, like the late Virgil Abloh, saw beyond the current operations of the industry, wanting to open the doors to new generations and embrace the digitally-shaped demographic. His vision of French couture intertwined with streetwear has kept Balmain in the spotlight and has allowed Şahin to develop his wildest ideas, to push the aesthetics, silhouettes, and techniques of modern footwear, and “go crazy”.
This new sneaker follows a notable year for Balmain, as Rousteing’s desire to be ahead of the curve saw the house venture into the metaverse. Partnering with Singapore-based gaming company, Altava, Balmain has pioneered a move into the non-fungible token (NFT) arena digitising and minting eight looks from its 'Above and Beyond' FW21 collection and designing a virtual-only 'Flame Dress' for Vogue Singapore. Şahin’s new design is inspired by Balmain’s vision of the metaverse and its limitless creative possibilities, pushing an already bold design to its extreme. The metaverse, as we know it, will not just exist on our screens, or in our homes, but coalesce with the world around us. Perhaps in ten years, you’ll encounter a friend with sandals sprouting flowers or sneakers set ablaze (until you remove your VR glasses). For now, this new Balmain model intends to deliver a vision of the future that extends a bridge between reality and the metaverse. We can only imagine what’s next.