Extreme hybrid and able to overcome any possible aesthetic and practical judgment.
It is in these terms that we want to talk about a Japanese designer capable of giving shape to those contradictions and dualisms that reflect the future of fashion: everyday and not everyday, tragedy and comedy, a world of opposites that attract each other.
Despite of Mihara Yasuhiro began his career designing footwear back in 1996, remains relatively unknown in the mass market of today’s sneaker world. For those who share an avant-garde taste that is not afraid to be upset by experimentation and the unusual, the aesthetic taste of the Japanese designer Mihara is nothing new.
Many remember him for his decades-long collaboration with PUMA with different and inspiring sneakers that don’t recognize any kind of limit. Yasuhiro changes the world of sports shoes precisely because it is able to go beyond the aesthetic canons of the world of sneakers.
While studying art, I felt like I had a mission to harmonize people and art. When people use something, that’s the essence of what “harmony” means to me. And I think sneakers really symbolize that. This is also the reason why I continue to create artistic and experimental shoes. The sneaker world is very important to me and I want to keep expanding the possibilities in this small world.
From the MY-59 model, to the MY-72, passing through the MY-70 created in collaboration with Puma, the search for an innovative and different design is in every Mihara creation that leads us to overcome the boundaries of fashion and sport. It makes us understand that the limits and definitions with which we label things do not actually exist and can be overcome.
It is of another type of collaboration, known by few, that all the creative genius of the Japanese designer manages to take shape in a pair of shoes. It is something never seen before born from the mind of an artist who brings to life the soul of an avant-garde fashion in an accessible street world where everyone can walk.
Imagining the unimaginable Mihara Yasuhiro together with ecco Leather has created a collection of shoes that reflect the era we are living in. Transparent shoes, but at the same time covered with an opaque patina just like the Instagram filters that today cover our face. In Yasuhiro’s sneakers for here Leather we can find all our desire to show our true face, together with the fear of putting it completely naked.
A beautiful contradiction that nevertheless reflects exactly how we are made. In this sense Mihara works with the contrasts and with the inconsistency that distinguishes us. He is not afraid of mixing the world of high fashion and street, as he is not afraid of being inconsistent in the design he creates.
The first collection with APPARITION Leather was launched in 2017 and walked the London and Paris catwalks in 2018. Today it offers complete collections of clothing, accessories and shoes, designed with unique and surprising ideas. From sneakers to a collection of clothing and accessories, the step is short. Real design objects that create illusions of lightness thanks to innovative research in the treatment of the skin through environmentally friendly technologies and processing methods.
Yasuhiro works with digital 3D design, reproducing the clay models afterwards. In this way it is able to recreate these complex shapes. In his own words, his style is “Sublime and ridiculous“, seeking the conflict between these two expressions. These refined and deliberately imperfect shapes have made the history of the sneakers designed by Mihara.
That’s why we want to tell his story by letting some of his creations that have inspired many designers around the world speak. A story made of collaborations and interpretations of fluid, hybrid forms that seem to give shape to that liquid society in which we are immersed.
MY-72 Black/Black
It was 2014 when Mihara for Puma created a model that combines absolutely distant and contrasting styles in a single shoe. A model that perfectly describes a search without limits or restrictions of styles, but which sees in the contamination a resource to create something unique. Undecided between a moccasin and a sports shoe? Why choose when Mihara shows us that opposites not only attract, but can also coexist together.
OG Sole
No this is not a bad copy of a Converse … but a sneaker that says a lot about Mihara’s creative work. Yasuhiro brazenly subverts the classic silhouettes of other street brands without hiding that the Original Sole are indeed created from parts of other “copied” sneakers, but that together they give life to something unique. The irregular and very high sole will become one of Mihara’s trademarks.
Melting Skate
Attention as the yellow card attached to the shoe says:
THIS IS NOT ORIGINAL SPORTS SHOES. THESE SHOES ARE MADE FROM VARIOUS COPY PARTS. PLEASE DO NOT PLAY SPORTS WITH THESE SHOES. IF YOU WANT TO PLAY SPORTS, YOU SHOULD CHOOSE BRAND SHOES. THERE IS NO DESIGNER IDENTITY IN THESE SHOES, BUT THERE ARE HIS GENERAL PHILOSOPHIES AND TABOUS.
Even with this model, Mihara is not afraid to take inspiration from the shapes that everyone knows well to interpret them according to her personal vision. Yasuhiro’s version of a silhouette that reminds us of the classic Vans is essentially distinguished by its wide laces, wobbly foxing and huge midsole.
Once you know the distinctive stylistic traits of this designer, in fact, when you look at this sneakers you will only see Mihara and no other brand
Deconstructed hybrid sneakers sandal
Always for those who love contradictions, Mihara thinks of a pair of sneakers that blend together a sandal and a shoe. The hybrid silhouette consists of a part completely covered in the shape of a sneaker, while the back half of the silhouette remains open like a sandal. In which season can you wear them? We said that there are no limits or restrictions in Mihara’s design so the question shouldn’t even be asked.
Moccasin-style sneaker
Thick and misaligned sole “a la Mihara” also for the latest sneakers made in 2020 by the Japanese designer. Also for this model two worlds are mixed: the elegant one of moccasins and the more informal one of sneakers.
Mihara changed the way of conceiving the design of a shoe without fear of the judgment of others. It makes us understand that to create something truly unique and special many times you don’t need to look very far from what surrounds us, but only to learn to look at things differently.
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