“Taking pictures of something that just exists was never interesting to me”
“I’ve always gravitated to photography that’s more illustrative in nature, where I can create my own reality — with a twist.” says Michel Tcherevkoff.
Obeying that inclination has served the Paris-born photographer well.
One day in his New York studio, having just shot a series of cosmetic ads for Prescriptives (Tcherevkoff is internationally recognized for his skill at creating visual metaphors for clients including Canon, L’Oreal, Maybelline and Valentino), he happened to glance at a photo of a leaf he’d used in the shoot.
“The print was lying upside down on a table,” he recounts, “and I said — although no one was listening to me — ‘Hey, that looks like a shoe!’”
A Florapedal Fantasy
From that glancing observation was born Tcherevkoff’s latest project, “Shoe-Fleur,” a whimsical, inventive and, in its own way, rigorous fancy of flowers and footwear.

Photo © Michel Tcherevkoff
Inspired by the upside-down leaf, Tcherevkoff played with the image in Photoshop on his Mac, adding a heel and turning it this way and that until he’d created a shoe. When he showed the prototype to his agent and a few others, he says, “I got this terrific reaction. People kept saying, ‘This is so unusual’ and ‘You should try it again’”
With the wholesale flower market just four blocks from the building where Tcherevkoff lives and works, he was ideally situated to experiment with the organic materials he discovered there. “I bought all these flowers and leaves and started to shoot,” he says. “It was fun and pretty and just what I like — a total fantasy.”
One Flower = One Shoe
Although firmly rooted in make-believe, Tcherevkoff’s project was more than just a game. He applied the same exacting standards to “Shoe-Fleur” as he does to all his work, even electing to craft each invented shoe from a single variety of flower or plant.
“I decided early on that I wouldn’t mix different types,” he says. “Every shoe and handbag [most of the shoes in the book have matching purses] would be made from one particular plant or flower.” Tcherevkoff shot blossoms and stems, twisting and knotting and weaving and tying them to bring nature’s flora to heel as meticulously as a third-generation Italian cobbler.
And he listened. “Each plant spoke to me in a different voice. One was very light and delicate,” he says, “so the strap had to be thin. Another one said, ‘I am big and strong — I could walk for miles.’ From that I designed a more rugged shoe.”
“Shoe-Fleur” is organized into four collections, as is traditional for fashion shows: fall, spring, resort and bridal. “I used plants that were in season,” notes Tcherevkoff. “Now,” he says, “every time I look at a plant, I see a shoe.”
By Bija Gutoff
Obeying that inclination has served the Paris-born photographer well.
One day in his New York studio, having just shot a series of cosmetic ads for Prescriptives (Tcherevkoff is internationally recognized for his skill at creating visual metaphors for clients including Canon, L’Oreal, Maybelline and Valentino), he happened to glance at a photo of a leaf he’d used in the shoot.
“The print was lying upside down on a table,” he recounts, “and I said — although no one was listening to me — ‘Hey, that looks like a shoe!’”
A Florapedal Fantasy
From that glancing observation was born Tcherevkoff’s latest project, “Shoe-Fleur,” a whimsical, inventive and, in its own way, rigorous fancy of flowers and footwear.
Photo © Michel Tcherevkoff |
Inspired by the upside-down leaf, Tcherevkoff played with the image in Photoshop on his Mac, adding a heel and turning it this way and that until he’d created a shoe. When he showed the prototype to his agent and a few others, he says, “I got this terrific reaction. People kept saying, ‘This is so unusual’ and ‘You should try it again’”
With the wholesale flower market just four blocks from the building where Tcherevkoff lives and works, he was ideally situated to experiment with the organic materials he discovered there. “I bought all these flowers and leaves and started to shoot,” he says. “It was fun and pretty and just what I like — a total fantasy.”
One Flower = One Shoe
Although firmly rooted in make-believe, Tcherevkoff’s project was more than just a game. He applied the same exacting standards to “Shoe-Fleur” as he does to all his work, even electing to craft each invented shoe from a single variety of flower or plant.“I decided early on that I wouldn’t mix different types,” he says. “Every shoe and handbag [most of the shoes in the book have matching purses] would be made from one particular plant or flower.” Tcherevkoff shot blossoms and stems, twisting and knotting and weaving and tying them to bring nature’s flora to heel as meticulously as a third-generation Italian cobbler.
And he listened. “Each plant spoke to me in a different voice. One was very light and delicate,” he says, “so the strap had to be thin. Another one said, ‘I am big and strong — I could walk for miles.’ From that I designed a more rugged shoe.”
“Shoe-Fleur” is organized into four collections, as is traditional for fashion shows: fall, spring, resort and bridal. “I used plants that were in season,” notes Tcherevkoff. “Now,” he says, “every time I look at a plant, I see a shoe.”
By Bija Gutoff
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