Méléard

Benoit (1972). Footwear designer. Born and raised in Paris, where today he presents spectacular shows of his visionary shoes for women, which are practically forms of architecture for the feet. A former ice-hockey player, after he took a diploma as an ad-illustrator at the École Supérieure des Arts Modernes, he was one of 12 students out of more than 2,000 to be selected for further study at AFPIC (Association pour la Formation des Profession des Métiers de l’Industrie du Cuir) in 1994. After work experience with Robert Clergerie, in 1996 he began designing shoes for Charles Jourdan and the “alternative” designer Jean Colonna. In 1997, he debuted on his own and encountered the creator Jeremy Scott, for whom he designed delirious shoes (in gilt leather, with unequal heels, one a high stiletto and the other a low, square heel) for the Rich White Women runway show. Today he continues to produce his own line as well as collaborations with very high profile brands such as Loewe and Diesel. Obsessed with shapes and geometry, and with a fetishist love for women’s feet, for the Tip Toe collection of 1998 he created little boots and open-toed shoes with very high arches but no heel, forcing the models to walk on tiptoes. “A cruel collection, just as every fashion diktat is cruel,” he commented. The Spring-Summer 2000 line was inspired by Minnie Mouse at the court of Versailles, with high eighteenth-century style shoes surmounted by enormous circles or squares placed vertically on the upper. Méléard himself admits to being “attracted by extremes that border on the ridiculous but not interested in futuristic materials. I believe in leather, the real kind.”