New York Magazine - 02.03.2020

82 THE CUT | MARCH 2–15, 2020

INSTANT

RAMEN

LASTPAGE: DIY Red Bottoms

WII REMOTES

BANANA

TOY

SHOPPING

CARTS

TRAFFIC

CONES

CUPS

PHOTOGRAPHS: ANESSAFINESSA_/TIKTOK (LEAF OVEN MITTS); LORETTASTEED/TIKTOK (RED OVEN MITTS); JOEDRINKSCOFFEE/TIKTOK (WII REMOTES); ANNHAYEK/TIKTOK (SHOPPING CARTS); KIEFERDICKEY/TIKTOK (BANANA); PEYTON_HACKER/TIKTOK (CUPS); KYLEMOSCHEN/TIKTOK (CONES); SAVANNTAHBANANTAH/TIKTOK (RAMEN)

OVEN MITTS

Before Iggy Azalea became synonymous with a certain kind of

cultural appropriation, her song “Work” was everywhere in 2013.

The lyrics “Walk a mile in these Louboutins / But they don’t wear

these shits where I’m from” reference her rise from a 16-year-old

with “No money, no family” to a person who raps professionally

about luxury shoes. Now a younger generation has borrowed the

song for its own uses on the social-media platform TikTok.

There you’ll find users making “Louboutins” out of mundane

household objects: oven mitts, Legos, watermelons, trash-can

lids, entire trash cans, string-cheese sticks stuck on forks taped to

feet—the possibilities range from the surreal to the dangerous.

Walk a Mile in

These Louboutins

An accidental Dadaist dream of footwear.

By Sarah Spellings