Textiles take the place of building materials in the dramatic swooping shapes, angular folds and oversized proportions of architecturally influenced fashion, whether on a highly wearable backpack or impractical runway couture. Fashion designers play with grids, tessellation, towering shapes, baroque details and three-dimensional forms, often making use of technology like 3D printing for unexpected results.

Baroque Architecture Backpacks by Konstantin Kofta

Designer Konstantin Kofta presents ‘arcs,’ a series of backpacks taking their shapes from baroque architectural elements like column caps and flourishes. Made of leather, the stone-gray accessories have a realistic appearance. “Natural forms and curves are applicable to human architecture,” says Kofta. “Baroque architecture inspiration – where regular designs give way to curves, dramatic shapes and decoration – was transferred to sculptural leather Kofta pieces to evoke sensual delight.”

Airplane Dress by Hussein Chalayan

Gleaming white with semi-detached panels lifting up beneath a layer of tulle, Hussein Chalayan’s Airplane Dress is made of the same material used in aircraft construction and changes shape via remote control.

Spectacular Bridge-Like Creations by Winde Rienstra

Amsterdam-based fashion designer Winde Rienstra explores structure and space with her 11:11 collection, blurring the lines between clothing and objects. Stiff as corsetry and creating a sort of cage around the body, the ribbed, angled pieces call to mind suspension bridges and the flying buttresses of Gothic cathedrals.

Iris Van Herpen’s 3D Printed Fashion Revolution

An innovator in the usage of 3D printing in fashion, Iris van Herpen shakes up the status quo with exciting three-dimensional pieces of wearable sculpture characterized by rich texture and almost alien patterns that would be right at home in a sci-fi movie. Van Herpen’s creations bridge the gap between wearable technology and fashion, focusing more on the aesthetics of strange new textiles than on gadgets.

Architectural Camouflage by Snarkitecture

Architecture and design duo Snarkitecture debuts ‘Architectural Camouflage,’ a collection of apparel and accessories featuring prints of white hex tile, subway tile and marble. Stand against the right urban surface, and you’ll blend right in. The pieces are available for purchase at Print All Over Me.

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Wearable Architecture 29 Structural Silhouettes In Fashion

State of Dress is part fashion, part art and part personal mission, an attempt to capture the essence of all fifty States in the US through a series of site-specific dress designs tailored to each location. Robin Barcus Slonina is the multi-disciplinary artist behind this project and the star of an upcoming documentary of her travels and work.

Some, like the New York City garbage bag dress, are intentionally humorous, referencing absurd couture mixed as well as ubiquitous street-side trash bags. Others, like the Nevada casino chip gown, are plays on local pastimes – in this case: the gaming and gambling cultures for which the state is most well-known.

While artificial materials make up some of the dresses, others are constructed from local organic elements, like Iowa’s prairie dress and Minnesota’s corn dress, each set in (and seeming to spring up from) an apt natural landscape.

Other states with lots of nature likewise ended up with environmental materials, from willows in Wyoming to pine cones in Maine and pine trees in Wisconsin.

The creation of each piece of apparel comes with its own story. Here is a bit more from the artist about the making of the NYC trash bag dress: “The first time I ever visited New York as a young artist was during a massive garbage strike, and it left a lasting impression on me to see mountains of garbage piled so high on busy city sidewalks. To me, the sanitation workers that mange these tiny mountains every week are the true heroes of the city.”

“However, by no means did I mean any disrespect or want to create something ugly for this metropolis of art, beauty and fashion. I therefore strived to create a jet-black, fashionable New York dress, that just happened to be made from garbage bags. To me, this piece represents all the dramatic contrasts inherent to New York: wealth and poverty, art and homelessness – beauty and trash. To fill the bags, I used another New York icon – crumpled-up New York Times newspapers.”

Oh, the ways women suffer for fashion. One of the most egregious perpetrators of fashion crimes is none other than that object of burning desire, that target of endless lust: the shoe. Shoe designers, like fashion designers, often go for over-the-top looks without really considering functionality. These well-heeled examples are often high on form but short on function, though some manage to come up short in both departments.

(image via: Virtual Shoe Museum)

Although most people would want to avoid attracting small children to the dangerous looking heels on the back of a shoe, these heeled wedges do just that. They feature a brightly-colored toy surrounding the heel, making this the perfect footwear for up-and-coming Pied Pipers who need a new way to lure children behind them.

(images via: Design Milk)

Unexpectedly stepping on a LEGO brick in bare feet is one of the most painful experiences the human body can endure, so it seems counter-intuitive to attach LEGOs to the very place where your feet will be. The wisdom of the design, however, is that if the LEGOs are stuck to your shoes they won’t be littering the floor.

(image via: Virtual Shoe Museum)

To make the Aries shoe, the designer used several types of animal skins to represent a created hybrid. One short cautionary note: these shoes may remind you of mountain goats, but don’t try rock climbing in them.

(image via: Virtual Shoe Museum)

If there is anything more painful than high heels, it’s a pair of high heels made of wood, strapped to your legs up to the knee, with absolutely zero support or protection from whatever may be on the floor. The designer calls these Stelts, and while they are indeed a work of art it is hard to imagine that anyone would willingly wear these.

(image via: Design Milk)

Before you ask “why bread shoes?” we would like to pose an equally important question: Why not bread shoes? While they would be the furthest thing from table-worthy after shuffling around in them all day, we would have to imagine that slipping your feet into warm loaves of bread would be a ridiculously pleasant sensation.

(image via: Virtual Shoe Museum)

Stepping into the Pinned Shoes, on the other hand, would be anything but pleasant. The heeled shoes are made up of two kilograms of pins, making them heavy and uncomfortable, but still oddly fascinating to look at.

(images via: Virtual Shoe Museum 1, 2)

The Shoe Heel and Double Decker shoes share a concept: two shoes must be better than one, and four obviously better than two. Both shoes use a second shoe as a heel, to some surprisingly unique results. While Shoe Heel looks like a wearable work of art, the Double Decker shoes look almost like a whimsical shoe factory accident.

(image via: GeekAlerts)

Walking barefoot on grass is one of the greatest pleasures of summer. In an attempt to capture that feeling year-round, Kush created the Grass Sandals. Not to be confused with Cinderella’s glass slippers, these silly shoes are beyond odd.

(images via: Virtual Shoe Museum 1, 2)

Ask any woman what the most important part of a shoe is. Right after “the grass on the inside,” she’ll probably say “the part that keeps street stuff from touching my feet.” The Souless Shoe and Golden Heel both take the idea of open-toed shoes a bit far by completely eliminating the front part of the shoe, instead basically tying an elevated spike to the wearer’s heels.

(image via: Virtual Shoe Museum)

When designing anything via computer model, building a wire frame is the first step. After that, you begin adding more and more detail until you have a 3D object. The designer of these shoes wanted to invoke the image of a computer wire frame model while at the same time calling to mind the low-res wire frame video games of the 1980s.

(images via: Dornob)

While most of these shoes are works of art in their own right, the Coloring Pencil Shoes are the only pair that make art everywhere they go. As the wearer walks along, colorful marks are left behind. These are maybe not the shoes to wear to your new boss’s house, but they could make a morning walk to work much more interesting than usual.

(image via: Virtual Shoe Museum)

These Steel Folded Shoes may look torturously uncomfortable, but the idea behind them is sound: a pair of shoes that collapse into a smaller size for travel. Of course, women have been wearing strappy sandals and ballet flats on vacation for just that purpose for many years, and those shoes tend not to cause painful collapse-related injuries like these may.

(image via: Dezeen)

The Mojito shoe is a deconstruction of ordinary shoe design. The designer realized that as long as the heel and the ball of the foot were supported, the rest of the shoe could take any form at all – or even no form. He set about creating the graceful shoe above which, to the designer, looks like a twisty piece of lime peel.

(image via: Virtual Shoe Museum)

Looking like a carefully arranged pile of Post-It Notes, the 100 Pieces of Paper shoes are a sculptural exploration of shape and form. Plus, they give you a handy place to jot down your to-do list for the weekend.

(images via: Virtual Shoe Museum)

The Contour Shoe jumps off of paper and into real life, becoming a (seemingly) 2D object in a 3D world. They resemble a simple line drawing sketched around a human foot, and their simple line continues on with the leg. The shoe and leg appear to be one continuous object. Balancing on their ice skate-thin soles seems like it would be quite a challenge.

(image via: Virtual Shoe Museum)

To be fair, these insane cork flip-flops were meant as a joke and not as an actual product. But to be even fairer, we have seen people wearing worse things on their feet. This particular pair was created for a Dutch comedy show called “Kreatief Met Kurk” (Creative With Cork).

(image via: Gajitz)

Multi-tasking is usually a positive thing, but not when it makes you look this goofy. These sandals feature a built-in metal detector that will let you hunt for treasure on the beach…while looking like someone who is supposed to be at home on house arrest.

(image via: Design Milk)

These fang shoes look a bit like cleats for the haute couture crowd. Featuring ten “fangs” per shoe, the vicious footwear is sturdy enough to support the wearer on trips down the catwalk and back. You may want to think twice before wearing them to the airport for your next flight, however.