Fashion victim
From Mod Mania
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Fashion Victim
Dr. Martens - created in England in the 1960s are a subculture onto themselves. They cliam to be at forfront of the teenage rebellion. They are the 'Anti-fashion' of a generartion past, and a supposedly a statement about individuality and creativity.
...But they are just a brand of shoes right??
a quick look at the doc martin website [1] and a read through of the history page, opens my eyes to the psychology of the brand. "Dr. Martens anchor you, liberate your creativity, inspire and fuel your identity. Our heritage fits your future; your future is our future." A pretty powerful message, but is it one still commonly shared by our own generation?
Modding a statement
i want to explore this idea of 'individuality' further, because personally im not convinced that by simply buying and wearing these iconic shoes i am taking on a different personality. All i see is a company telling me to wear their brand if i want to join the teenage rebellion bandwagon... and so what makes them any different to any other brand telling me what i should wear. i guess its all just about making money right?
SO, im going to mod a pair of Docs, they are (i think) '1460 8-ups' the original black doc martins ~ fairly boring to look at really!! im thinking why not modify them to contradict everything they supposedly stand for..im thinking painting them bring colours, maybe displaying 'mainstream' brand logos or images, possibly converting them into rollerscates, and generally giving them an entirely "girly" image.
i will try to find some discussion forums about docs to see if they get a response at all.
Please Help
Any suggestions on how better to mod these shoes or maybe any possible forums you know of, or ideas for testing them with consummers would be greatly appreciated!! thanks :)
http://www.theforumsite.com/forum/topic/Brand-names/97589 a fashion forum discussing brand name shoes
http://www.rheingold.com/paintyourshoeshow.html how to paint your shoes
http://www.rheingold.com/paintyourshoesgallery.html painted shoe pics
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/crafts/msg122221125776.html forums on shoe painting
http://www.methamphibian.com/ have a look at the gallery, these are pretty impressive
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/57927/ten_reasons_why_you_should_not_buy.html someones rants... "why you should not wear docs"
Barbie Girl
Whatever was to be painted onto my docs had to be an obvious symbol of conformity, and what's more mainstream and commericial than... 
It takes just a quick walk through a local toy store, or a moment to google "barbie" to see that the brand seems to have moved into every single area possible. heres a few i found interesting... there are even a cars with the barbie branding.
The Fun Stuff
I get to paint shoes!!
- First step is to sand down the shoes. This is to remove the shiney layer on the leather, to make it easier to paint. I used '80' sandpaper and the shoes roughed up really quickly.
- Next I found a sealant that i luckily had lying around so i applied that to the corse leather as a base.
- after it was dry i began painting with an acrylic water based white paint. I wanted to eventually paint the shoes a bright barbie pink, so a white undercoat is really necessary. This layer had to dry and another coat applied.
- Next I found a sealant that i luckily had lying around so i applied that to the corse leather as a base.
- Once the white undercoat was dry and smooth i bagan applying the pink overcoat with a paint sponge to avoid brush marks. Again this needs multiple coats and time to dry in between. The more coats the better the paint will look in the end but unfortunately also the more likely the paint is to crack when they are worn.
The first Pink coat looked a bit dodgy, so i repainted about 5 or 6 coats 
Now that the shoes are painted i am looking out for some "barbie" stickers or transfers as a clever way to attach the logo. I also would like to add some pink or white contrasting laces to finish.
The Result
Turns out barbie stickers are more expensive and harder to find than i had imagined! Either way they were the best option for the branding of my Barbie Docs. I also painted a few white details and threaded white laces. Here's what they look like...
