Escarpé.e.s

How can we explain that the look of the others allows us to take confidence in ourselves as to make us feel lower than ground? How can a person who is used to the gaze of others free himself from it when he finds himself alone? Loneliness in a closed situation raises the question of absence. The absence of the other's gaze, of its gratification as well as its disapproval.

Many people have experienced an alone lockdown, facing themselves, stuck with their thoughts, their anxieties, their joys and sorrows. An introspection that prompted us to question the subject of mental health, what can happen when the gaze of others disappears, when the vision we have of ourselves occupies all the space?

In our film "Escarpé.e.s" the desire to impress others and to respond to their oppressive gaze is embodied by a pair of equally oppressive pumps. Our protagonist chooses at first to continue her daily ritual without changing anything, doing everything as usual, as if this presence that seemed comforting was still accompanying her but without really believing it.
Then she starts to feel alone, she misses the recognition, the attention, she is facing the obvious, hurt and without anyone to look at her. The boredom will give way to the desire to feel alive, to let her emotions run free.

This fashion film links multiple inspirations: Roland Barthes' System of Fashion, Schiaparelli x Dali's Shoe-Hat, as well as the craft and cartoon aesthetics. We started from the analysis of the double discourse of fashion. The idea is to associate a piece with a double meaning: that of utility and trend. Here, the protagonist firstly abandons the use of the shoe and then the prescriptions of the fashion world. The shoe is no longer a shoe and the idea of the Louboutin represented by the red sole disappears symbolically, covered with blue.