Shoes are put through a great degree of wear and tear, it's in the job description. So it's perhaps surprising that a duo of designers are trying to commercialise shoe uppers that are made from thousands of silk threads as thin as strands of human hair.
Nicole Goymann and Christoph John wound together wet silk threads and used natural silk glue to hold them together, forming unique patterns and quasi-functional. They came about almost by accident. Silk threads kept sticking to Goymann's bobbin as she weaved - leading the two to wonder if the material could be used for other applications. Christoph John told Dezeen that by fusing the threads together and holding them in place by using a natural silk glue, sericin, the mesh of materials was strong enough to create structures resembling dishes, bowls and even a vase.
Right now the Léi Zǔ Shoe Collection is just for show but the pair hope to see them marketable by the end of 2015.
Another unique approach to using silk was Silk Pavilion, which mixed organic and technological processes - coaxing thousands of silkworms into spinning intricate, beautiful patterns, all guided by computing.