Panolo Blahnik
Panolo Blahnik—a riff on the name of luxury shoe designer Manolo Blahnik—is the personal project of New York City-based book designers and co-workers Na Kim and June Park. It’s an endearing series of breadshoes born out of less-than-satisfactory lunches: Na and June’s office is in the Financial District, where according to June, “the options are bleak.” Picking up soup one day, they were excited to realize how closely one of their free breadsticks resembled a shoe—so they decided to see through its potential back at the office.
It may have started out as a joke, but creating and photographing shoes made of leftover bread has become a regular practice for Na and June, and one that brings them a lot of joy. “It’s hard not to have a smile on your face after making something as silly as a breadshoe,” Na says.
It has also helped the designers—who have backgrounds working across mediums like painting, illustration, ceramics, and sculpting—to step away from their laptops. “Panolo has been so refreshing for me,” June says. “Getting tactile with no plan to follow has felt really healthy. Sometimes planning can take the joy or unexpected freshness out of something—Panolo provides space to explore and see what happens. I’d like to bring more of that into my design work.”
Panolo Blahnik is on a quarantine-induced hiatus right now, but Na and June fully intend to keep their much-loved workday ritual alive. As the series has grown, they’ve even started a small collection of odds and ends to use as adornments. Among their favorites? “In true Panolo spirit, office supplies,” June says. It’s hard for us to think of a happier use for them.
