materiesfecales/InstagramThere is something about the human foot which is so undeniably, universally weird. The random blisters, the wriggly toes, the ripe odour after a run.
Nothing about these pongy bizarro hands immediately shrieks high fashion footwear; at least not to those of us without a serious foot fetish. (No shame, obvs.)
However, Canadian fashion brand Matieres Fecales has drawn inspiration from your humble plates of meat for their eerie new boots; complete with moles, freakishly realistic toes and even leg hair.
Oh and there is also a hellish horn and a sharp flesh coloured heel which will make your insides do all sorts of strange and unusual things at first glance.
Matieres Fecales – which is French for Fecal Matter – was dreamt up by creative couple Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran.
The pair met while studying fashion in Montreal and went on to design a range of items which look straight out of a horror movie from the future, and I mean that in the best possible way.
Dalton and Bhaskaran first shared the concept for these skin boots in early 2018, using Photoshop and prosthetics.
Following an awe stricken response by fans, they decided to bring the shoes out of the realm of nightmares and into reality. Artist Sarah Sitkin, whose work involves crafting replicas of body parts, helped them with the process.
Speaking with Vogue, Bhaskaran described the spooky shoes as being ‘a custom art piece that is wearable’:
Everyone was like, ‘Is it Photoshopped? Is it not Photoshopped?’ We wanted to put it out in real life.
We can get this alien look and present it and tweak it with Photoshop and make it look really realistic, But at the same time, there is always this dysphoria in us.
There is this urge inside of us to take what we do on the Internet and try to create that via real life. That is what we are doing with the shoes.
He added:
The bottom line is the masses aren’t going to adapt to this. It isn’t like tomorrow everyone is going to be wearing these heels, but we want the masses to accept it and see it as something not scary or intimidating,
Through our platform, a lot of people are gaining confidence and living their lives without fear.
Unfortunately, if – like me – you were thinking this would make an excellent last minute Halloween costume, then I’m sorry to say you may have to sell your actual feet on the black market in order to afford them.
With a starting price of $10,000 (around £5,931), you probably won’t come across these couture clodhoppers on sale at Schuh any time soon.
However, Dalton and Bhaskaran are hoping to launch more affordable skin heels at some point in the future; meaning you could one day see people stepping out on the town in these.
What are we reckoning? Are these shoes out of this world or do you just want to put them on a spaceship and wave them off to another universe?
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Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.