These are some of the freakiest shoes that I have ever set eyes on. Made by German designer Iris Shieferstein, the footwear is really created from body parts of dead animals. She used horse hooves and skin, snake skin and even entire dead birds as decorations.
I actually doubt there are lots of people out there willing to walk around with a pair of stuffed birds on their feet, but that isn’t stopping 45-year-old Iris Shieferstein from using all sorts of dead animal parts to build unique shoes. She agrees her creations are not exactly as comfortable as trainers, but she still wears them around the house. The designer says that her footwear is mostly meant for ‘aesthetic pleasure’. The animal shoes have been displays at exhibitions around the world and Dolce & Gabanna have even created a range based on her designs. But so far, no company has had the courage to make them for the general public.
Some of Iris’s notable collections include a pair made from a chestnut steed with no heels so the person wearing them wants to balance on their toes, another pair made from cream horse fur with bone used for the heel and a zip up front, and also the stuffed dove shoes – in which the wearer needs to slide their toes between the bird’s legs. While some might find this really weird, Iris is beautiful excited about her footwear creations. “When I’ve got the dove shoes on that are made from real birds, I feel like I’m flying,” she says.
