Throughout history, women have invested immense time, money, and emotional energy into altering and maintaining their appearance, often to satisfy ideals shaped by the patriarchy's expectations. Women are encouraged to chase an ideal that cannot truly be achieved, while simultaneously being criticized for falling short of it. I was drawn to the mythology of the mermaids and sirens as a metaphor for this contradiction. Representing the ultimate object of desire, but she is also entirely unattainable.

To express this idea, I transformed a pair of high heels into sculptural, scale-covered "siren shoes." The concept is intentionally absurd: a mermaid has no feet, making shoes completely useless. This irony mirrors the impossible expectations placed on women, who are continually encouraged to modify every aspect of themselves in pursuit of acceptance. The work draws inspiration from Alexander McQueen's Spring 2010 "Armadillo" shoes, which reimagined footwear as sculptural fantasy, and the playful surrealism of Elsa Schiaparelli's early absurdist designs. By presenting an object that is both beautiful and functionally impossible, the piece exposes the irrationality of these societal pressures.