The Empress's New Shoes

Xintiandi, Shanghai

The Empress's New Shoes began as an allegory written by BAM after arriving in China in 2009. The original story was an attempt to articulate our frustration as foreign designers working within the foreign 'empire.' As young designer's BAM saw many structural problems within Chinese cities that we wanted to address in our work. But like the artists of the story the emperor clients refused to address the real problems and insisted to use us for design projects that were cover-ups of the greater structural flaws.

Following the writing of the original allegorical story in 2009 BAM was invited in 2014 to produce an installation for the RIBA Windows Project in Xintiandi in Shanghai. Paired with the store Pelle Moda, a women's shoe store, BAM had the opportunity to illustrate the story once again. However one should note the original ending was tragic. Thanks to the retail environment all the artists and empress now must live happier ever after.