The piece in this week’s issue (“The Style Issue”) that I
enjoyed most is Rebecca Mead’s "Sole Cycle." It’s about the fashion makeover of
the Birkenstock. The variety of ways in which the basic Birkenstock design has
been tweaked without changing its “foot bed” (“You must not change the foot
bed,” says Birkenstock director of product and design, Rudy Haslbeck) is fascinating:
“a Boston mule made from textured velvet in crimson or gold, inspired by a
Persian-lamb coat that Haslbeck had discovered in a flea market”; an Arizona
sandal with a “rose-gold leather foot bed and an upper made from pinkish-peach
tweed threaded with iridescent silver” that “looked as if it had been cut from
the sleeve of a Chanel jacket”; another Arizona sandal, in black leather, “lined
in sapphire-blue shearling”; “a whimsical pair of mauve high-top boots with a
white sneaker bottom”; “a women’s lace-up boot in burnished brown leather and
lined with shearling.”
“Sole Cycle” has a sturdy foot bed of its own, consisting of
three “visits”: one to Neustadt, Germany, where Birkenstock’s “campus” is
located; one to a Birkenstock factory outside Gorlitz, Germany (“When I visited
the factory, it smelled as pungent as a bakery, redolent with the scent of
cooking latex and cork”); and one to Las Vegas to attend FN Platform, “a
three-day trade show that bills itself as ‘The Global Showcase for Branded
Footwear,’ ” in which Birkenstock has a booth. All three are marvelous,
yielding delicious, tactile word combos, e.g., “After I examined a prototype of
knee-high socks in a textured oatmeal yarn, I was shown a tube of four-ply
cream-colored cashmere, like a luxurious cable sweater for an indulged
dachshund.” My favorite part is the campus showroom visit, in which Mead tries
on the lace-up boot. She writes, “Haslbeck suggested that I try on the lace-up
boot, and I slipped my bare foot into it. With the warmth and softness of the
fur, and the cradling comfort of the foot bed, it felt wonderful. I think I may
have gasped.”
In its artful blend of subjective specifics, sensuous description, and delectable word assemblages, “Sole Cycle” is just about perfect. I enjoyed it immensely.
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