tokio kumagai

blog page, footprint, momu, eye, eye sandal

Tokio Kumagaï ca. 1989
sandal with eye motive, hair from paintbrush at tip of shoe
courtesy of momu / frédéric uyttenhove

Tokio Kumagaï (1948–1987) was born in Sendai, Japan. After high school he studied at the prestigious Bunka College of Fashion in Tokyo. Shortly after his graduation in 1970 he went to Paris and worked for Yves St. Laurent and Jean-Charles Castelbajac. 

After working for Castelbajac in Paris and Cerruti in Italy, Tokio Kumagaï began hand-painting shoes in 1979 and opened Paris boutique in 1980. Kumagaï approached the shoe as a surrealist canvas for representations of various objects and animals, or the work of fine artists such as Dali, Mondrian, and Kandinsky. His whimsical designs frequently included faces or masks on the vamp, and involved altering the cut of the shoe to conform to the decorative elements.