Countdown to ‘Watch our Steps’ at the Dutch Design Week, 5 days to go!

This week we will be counting down to the start of Dutch Design Week 20-28 October in Eindhoven, which will premiere the spectacular exhibition ‘Watch our Steps’ organized by SLEM, a new education and innovation centre for footwear.


The exhibition will feature the best footwear graduation works from academies around the world, from Hiko Mizuno and Bunka College in Tokyo, to Polimoda in Florence and London College of Fashion to ArteZ in Arnhem and many more. It promises to be the footwear event of the year!

The DDW audience can vote for who they think has the best work and the final decision will be made on Friday, October 26 by an expert jury, which includes Liza Snook of the Virtual Shoe Museum! The winner will receive the Global Footwear Design Award, which involves tailor made training and consulting provided by the broad network of SLEM. This will help the winner make a head start with his or her career; in whichever direction he or she would like to move forward within the shoe business.

From now on we will give you a sneak preview each day, until Saturday the 20th, when the exhibition opens and you can all go and see it for yourselves and/or get the digital catalogue from slem.nl!

Today we start with shoes by Giulia Tannini, who graduated last year from Polimoda in Florence. She named her collection “Blue Ring” after a deadly octopus from the Pacific Ocean (Hapalochlaena Lunulata) that has large bright blue rings on its mantle. The intricate perforations for the upper were laser-cut and she then coloured the edges by hand. The wooden heel structures also resemble the texture of the octopus skin and have been made using a CNC milling machine. Due to their complex structure each heel took between 7 and 14 days to make!

Dutch Design Week
SLEM Hall 2 of the Klokgebouw at Strijp S
Eindhoven