Are These Red Big Boots Really Real Or Just Throwing A Stimulation of Hyper-reality?

(Picture source: msn website )

These recently-launched MSCHF’s Red Big Boots, on 16th February, jumped straight out of the metaphysical realism and cartoonish world, and have fashioned an abundance of attraction on the internet. These experimental and trending crazy cartoonish boots have splashed Instagram and Twitter from top to bottom with videos of people unboxing these $350USD boots, testing them for a casual walk and even struggling with taking them off. MSCHF also popped up with a fashion editorial for the launch of these red boots starring model Sarah Snyder in it. A TikTok video of modeling these boots climbed up to more than 3 million views and half a million likes in just a day. Even several tweeted their experiences, where Jacinda Pender wrote, “those big red cartoon boots are cute and i love how unserious they are and want a pair. i think we should all aspire to look like looney tune characters bc none of this is real and fashion should be fun and silly me thinks”. Fashion has been a statement of fun more than an aesthetic affair in this world buzzing with animated inspiration. 

Are these boots beyond what one can define as fashion or are they proving that fashion is beyond definition? Unbound and versatile. Structured with rubber and foam, these Dora the Explorer sidekick boots or Astro Boy have provided a moment of change to the users from the normal and usual walkwear, even if they can't become a long-term commitment. A YouTuber with an admiration for all kinds of sneakers, Steve Nato after walking through that red cartoonish experience revealed in an interview, “A lot of the time it’s just a lot of the big brands doing the same kind of the things just repeating different colorways, and it’s nice to see something different for once even if it’s a little fun or just different than normal. It’s nice to see something that’s a little bit of a change of pace”.

Maybe that’s why these boots have attracted the audience and framed a position in the trends. As people are seeing something unusual coming into the picture and still being enjoyed. This is a reflection of Hyperreality, where reality and representation are hard to distinguish; whether it is real or some kind of representation penetrating reality. But there’s nothing symmetrical about this hyperrealism, it is weighed with both the pros and the cons. Marked out as “carbon boots for a cool 3D world” these boots are “shaped more like a boot and less for the feet” claimed the brand. That itself says that these boots are not created keeping the comfort point in mind but majorly the fun aspect. Even these viral MSCHF boots are being criticized as well, in the name of fashion. “I truly believe these boots are a social experiment”, actor Jameela Jamil put out on Instagram, “to see if humans are so gullible we will adopt literally anything as a trend”.

(Picture source: Mor.Bo)

Buckled up with fashion culture, people also detest these red rubber boots and the habit of adapting anything popping up-up on the screen as fashion. Meanwhile, MSCHF's words made a statement, "Cartoonishness is an abstraction that frees us from the constraints of reality". In this ever-expanding trend era, with a rhetorical approach, questions are arising as to why these implications can't be to real-life courses with modernizing culture and futurism.

The world through the lens of Hyperreality 

Disneyland can be a sound example of Hyperreality, agreed both Umberto Eco and Jean Baudrillard. The former believes that its Main Street and the plot setting look quite realistic, taking one’s imagination to a new abode and also transmitting visitors into someone else’s chain of thoughts. The latter defined “hyperreality” as “the generation by models of a real without origin or reality”. One that bounce back with a stimulation of reality. More prevalent during the AI revolution. 

The red rubber boots share the same story. Imprinting is a reality-stimulating image in our conscious minds and captures an instance of things appearing different from what they are. But, if Schiaparelli Haute Couture's Daniel Roseberry can be inspired by Dante’s Inferno and make his audience immerse in its magical realism with some standout stars like Kylie Jenner all decked-up with lifelike animal heads, to the hyperrealistic Loewe’s Minnie Mouse shoes can be into the fashion trends. Why can’t these boots get exposure as real boots?

(Picture source: Hollywood Life)

After the pandemic era, fashion has put up with different complexions and credos. Even Jonathan Anderson’s true-to-life pigeon clutch bag feels like a daring stunt of fashion in public. Sold out at all the places, this bag has put forward a new narration of styling. 

(Picture source: Harper's Bazaar Website )

Even at Milan Fashion Week's Menswear show, JW Anderson in collaboration with Wellipets designed a frog clog footwear, a slimy green coloured entrenched with yellow black eyes, for the fashion runway. Anderson's inspiration was rooted in his childhood recollections and feels home to him. Watching Harry Styles style the "clown wear" jumpsuit at the Grammy Awards and Doja Cat walking in an upside-down and sideways gown at Victor and Rolf couture show in Paris, lightened up deep cascades on the internet. It was like a piece of imagination plucked from the mind and presented as an artwork to create a moment for people to think and rethink. 

Picture source: India Today

The Fashion Week 2021-22 encapsulated numerous indie sleaze style wear that actually tailored a topsy-turvy world of fashion. Watching these outrageous and unimaginable styling, creates a question. Is fashion speeding into its silly era? These hyper-realistic trends are cutting-off fashion from reality for a while and gluing it with fantasy.  Through the lens of hyperreality, it seems like the world has escaped the scope of reality and fashion has leaped across the fences of possibility.

More than controversy, are these hyper-realistic trends comedy 

The thing with fashion is that it is always an experimentation. A puzzled piece put together and at the end what it makes is not only what matters, instead how it has been taken-up is also. There has been a lot of revolution that shaped the thought of how fashion and its world has been perceived. Even the point of reliability and comfort must also be served on the tables. Prada’s soft padded leather lace-up boots have gripped plenty of eyes. Polished with chic and strong statement of style. It balances fashion as well as reliability along with being in the trend zone. Nike has also brought a hurricane with its uniquely framed shoes and now the world knows how it feels to walk in Nike’s creation. 

Moreover, these hyper-realistic trends might be controversial but at the same time they bounce back with a time away from reality and imagine the unthinkable. But not every time these fashion trends are a part of comedy. Glancing at New York Fashion Week, where Chloe Sevigny walked in, designers Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough’s intricately detailed, modern and leather stylish wardrobe must-have piece. One of a kind and truly fashionable. 

(Picture source: Elle website )

These hyper realistic trends are more like a fun-serving moment to live for a while. That gives a pause from the normal and acceptable world and lets us walk into unimaginable edifices of thoughts. These trends can also be a moment to be remembered that once happened in some timeline and give a chance to people to recreate it to relive the history for a moment. 

Jumping back to those Red Big Boots, it appears that those cartoonish boots can be the talk of the town for a minute-fun but not the walk of all the time. Perhaps, it can be considered for a moment of pleasurable and playful walk to bring some pinch of fantasy in reality. Or is it a fantasy world where reality can be altered and tailored to the distance as far as the human mind can wander and wonder.