Fifty Years of John Fluevog
The iconic shoe designer’s new book steps into his world of singularly stylish footwear
By Andrew Hoge April 6, 2020
This article originally appeared in the April 2020 issue of Seattle magazine.
This article appears in print in the April 2020 issue. Click here to subscribe.
John Fluevog Shoes is known for alternative designs worn by the likes of Madonna, Beyoncé and Lady Gaga. This year, the brand’s namesake founder is celebrating his 50th anniversary in the shoe business with a coffee table book titled Fluevog: 50 Years of Unique Soles for Unique Souls ($50), filled with eye-catching images of his iconic, trend-defying designs.
Seattle played an important role in the brand’s evolution: After launching his first store in 1970 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Fluevog opened a Seattle location in 1985. The storefront at Second Avenue and Pine Street was the designer’s first in the United States and the birthplace of Fluevog’s famed Angel boots, an environmentally friendly grunge mainstay worn by the “cool kids,” according to Fluevog. Our fair city also inspired The Seattle Family line of shoes and boots, which was designed to balance youthful style and heritage techniques with smooth leather and comfort à la memory foam insoles.
Follow Us
AANHPI Month: Where to Celebrate, Eat, and Learn Around Seattle
From festivals and museum exhibits to food tours and historic neighborhoods, here are a few ways to mark the month across the region.
Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month—known as AANHPI Month—is observed in the U.S. each May. It began as a weeklong observance in 1978 and expanded to the full month in 1992. Asian, Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities in the United States extend back much further, including to the late 16th century, when…
Black Panther Park in Skyway Becomes First Black Panther Park in the World
The new community garden honors the Black Panther Party’s legacy of food justice and the Skyway neighbors who helped bring it to life.
On a sunny Sunday earlier this month, at the corner of 75th Avenue and Renton Avenue South, the community gathered for the opening of Skyway’s Black Panther Park. Inspired by the Black Panther’s Free Breakfast for School Children program that compelled the federal government to provide breakfast in schools, Black Panther Park is a community…
Rearview Mirror: A Family Coming Apart, SIFF, and My First Fashion Show
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
The Family House A house can hold a lot, and Seattle Rep’s Appropriate knows that. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Tony-winning play, directed here by Timothy McCuen Piggee, drops the Lafayette siblings into their late father’s hoarded, falling-apart Arkansas plantation home for an estate sale, and lets the whole thing crack open from there. The sibling dynamics are…
Studio Sessions: Raili Jänese
The Kirkland painter brings a playful eye to daily life and the little rituals of being human.
Artist Raili Jänese pays close attention to the small stuff. It might be a goose on the move, a rabbit in the yard, or a person lost in the rituals of coffee or cooking. The Estonian-born artist, now based in Kirkland, makes colorful acrylic works that turn everyday behavior—human and animal alike—into something funny and…