Hash's Latest Deconstruction - Eiffel Tower Heels

There is a sense of national pride in Parisian ateliers this winter, beginning with the enduring obsession with the Eiffel Tower as exemplified by Anne Valerie Hash.

For her Spring/Summer 2008 accessories collection, designer Hash referenced the most famous monument in France, with looks featuring three pairs of shoes that referenced the iconic tower’s silhouette.

Using Gustav Eiffel and his work as her main inspiration, Hash created a sense of podiatric architecture, whether it is the curved line of the heel or the angles and negative spaces created by the overlapping straps.

Hash is famous for her desire “to experiment with the deconstruction of clothing and fashion,” and her latest shoe collection, her fifth so far, is a striking example of said desire. Just as her women’s fashion is based on deconstructing men’s clothes, so her footwear reinterprets the iconic landmark in an abstract way. Hash, who created her first fashion collection in 2001 based around that desire, tends to take a cerebral approach to her designs. She strives to see how things work in order to change them and make them new and original.

In the Fel shoe, the most intricate detailing comes not from the shape of the tower, but from the woven interior that references the steel latticework of the real thing. The leather Fel is available with 9 cm heels, in ice brown, metallic yellow and metallic salmon, while there is a flat version that comes in the same colors as well as black. The third version of the Fel comes in muted satin with metallic leather accents; in this version the brilliance comes from the fabrics and not the construction.

Fans of Anne Valerie Hash shoes will be pleased with the return of the “classic fish-form” flats, which faintly mimic the face of a fish. With a slightly curved toe that smoothly transforms into a soft point, these shoes are known for making the feet look smaller. The slightly elfish toe looks very stylish, not at all silly. The fish flat is available in silver, red metallic and salmon metallic.

The shoes are not cheap - ranging in price from approximately 610 dollars for the flats or satin heels to 690 dollars for the leather heels. They will be available at Henri Bendel and Bergdorf Goodman in New York, as well as Cielo in San Francisco.

It’s been a busy year for Anne Valerie Hash, who along with her fashion line produced a book inspired by her work over the last seven years. A collaboration between Hash, her very young muse Lou Lisa Lesage and the photographer Fabrice Laroche; the book chronicles Hash’s deconstructed designs each season on the ever changing and subtly maturing young model. The only elements that remain constant are the people involved and the quality of work they produce. These remain notable.

* Anne Valerie Hash: From Girly to Gothic * Anne Valerie Hash: Seductively Constructed		* A Very Betsey Birthday Bash * Martha Davis: Industrial Design Meets Shoes