The Silk Léi Zu Collection by Nicole Goymann and Christoph John

The Léi Zǔ shoe collection is inspired by and named after a legendary Chinese empress who invented the silk reel. To show of the luxurious look of silk, the designer Nicole Goymann and Christoph John create this collection by working with raw silk.

While silk cocoons are normally hard, they’re softened with boiling water and release a single silk filament. The silk strand is winded and shaped in the shape of the shoe, giving multiple design possibilities for a silk shoe. Due to the natural hardening of glue after contact with air, the silk thread is able to remain in place and become functional.

The collection was part of the Handmade in Hangzhou exhibition at Milan Design Week.

After surviving a quarter life crisis, Nanette went from working in healthcare canadian meds to pursuing her loves of design, food and writing. During the day she works in social media marketing, by night she writes for Design Milk. You can find more of her work at nanettewong.com.

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