Murakami 'Mushrooms' slip-on sneakers from Issey Miyake Men, Spring/Summer 2000. COME WITH THE BOX. Those sneakers have been some of the most iconic and coveted ones created by a fashion house. They come from no less than the first-ever serious collaboration between the great artist Takashi Murakami and a designer brand. The pattern of mushrooms is easily recognizable since it is now a staple of Murakami's work. They are comfortable and look beautiful. Aside from very light stains on the fabric, they are in truly amazing condition and they have not been worn much.

Not many people know this, but Murakami's mushrooms were inspired by the male genitalia. What initially sparked the idea was that everybody commented that the organ of 'My Lonesome Cowboy' looked like a mushroom. Then, he got the idea from the passage of Ryotaro Shiba's "Kunitori Monogatari" where Nobunaga meets Dosan Saito for the first time and wears a yukata with male genitalia printed on the back. The prints turned into mushrooms. While mushrooms are the erect moment of life, they are fashionable with the double meaning that they symbolize drugs in psychedelic culture. A lot more can be said about the topic, but I will stop here.