Gisele Bündchen prompts flat shoes for Balenciaga
The creative director of luxury leathergoods firm Balenciaga has said that the label’s chunky flat shoes for the spring-summer 2011 collection were prompted by models refusing to wear heels on the runway.
Nicolas Ghesquière, who heads the PPR-owned firm’s creative department, suggested that it was the Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen who insisted on the shoes being flat.
When talking about the label's catwalk show, he told Women’s Wear Daily: “The idea was to have this crazy casting with Gisele and Amber Valletta and Carolyn [Murphy], and they said no for high heels. They were not used to walking with heels anymore. Gisele was worried; she would not walk with my heels.”
The designer said that shoes are “almost a starting point” for his collections, but that he was “already thinking flats…already preparing the flat shoes”.
For its autumn-winter 2011 collection, however, Balenciaga was back to its 11.4cm heels – suggesting that perhaps Ms Bündchen’s refusal to wear heels had more to do with the flats than pure coincidence.
