“Walking on high heels, soaking up life”

2012: A Shoe Odyssey

If you had enough pairs of shoes to wear a different set every day for an entire year, would you? Could you? That’s the idea behind ‘EddaLovesHeels’, the project-blog of Austrian-born, Amsterdam-based freelance designer Edda Müller. She intends to post each day – having ‘kicked off’ 1 January, 2012 with a barefoot toast to her dance-filled New Year’s Eve – and boasts a teeming closet that is more than up to the task. Each entry features an image of her decadent footwear, followed by a short personal statement describing that day in the life of the self-diagnosed shoe addict.

About the author

Edda spent five years touring Europe as a concert pianist after graduating from Salzburg’s Mozarteum in 1991, before transitioning to study graphic design in Linz. She re-started her career in 2000 at Euro RSCG Vienna, having spent time doing design for Johnson & Johnson, and Porsche. Over the next four years, her clients included some of the biggest retailers in Austria: Billa, Baumax, Libro and Telekom. By 2006, Edda decided a change in scenery was in order and headed west to Amsterdam. As a freelance art director, she balances a diverse clientele, including advertising agencies, international companies and small independent offices alike.

About ‘EddaLovesHeels’

After an interview with Elle and Dutch blogger Kiki Düren where she casually mentioned the ‘experiment’ of wearing a different pair from her vast collection each day and writing about it, Edda took a page from ‘Julie and Julia’ and set off on her own shoe odyssey. She designs and shoots each the print-quality photos herself, often including apropos decorative elements (glitter, confetti, champagne; sunglasses, popsicle, copious sunshine) to construct an engaging visual narrative. Vivid colours, various camera angles and (often) her own sleek calves convey each scene in a manner as unique as the day that inspired it. And as if the images couldn’t speak for themselves, Edda’s own witty, bubbly written commentary follows, giving the reader a brief snapshot of her life, her thoughts on fashion gossip or a fuller description of any story that may have inspired the day’s shoot.

Text: Tim Peterson 2012