Recently, the experimental New York label MSCHF took social media by storm with its big red boots – or more specifically a pair of squishy-looking TPU rubber kicks that look like they belong on the feet of robot boy Astro Boy. While the brand did not namecheck the manga icon, it did say that “cartoonishness is an abstraction that frees us from the constraints of reality” in a press release.
Call it cartoonish or comical, we are indeed in the mood for pouffy, pillowy, cloudlike and squishy designs right now. Whether it is spending time dressing up our avatars on the Bondee app in cute plush apparel and accessories or swooning over Balenciaga’s sponge-like Crocs boots in real life, the blown-up quality of these items is giving us some comfort, pleasure and even a few laughs. Who’s complaining?
