Those Godzilla claw shoes on the Oscars red carpet are just one of Hazama’s ‘dark fantasy’ creations

URAWA, Japan (AP) — One Japanese creation grabbing attention on the Oscars red carpet wasn’t a movie: the kitsch shoes that seemed to be clenched in Godzilla’s claw.

They were the work of Ryosuke Matsui, who recently described his joy at seeing “Godzilla Minus One” director Takashi Yamazaki and his Shirogumi special-effects team walk the red carpet and win the visual effects Oscar, all while wearing his shoes.

“The director loves my shoes. He calls them his uniform,” Matsui told The Associated Press in an interview.

At 35 with a fashion career that’s barely a decade old, Matsui heads his own brand called Hazama, which means “the space-in-between” in Japanese.

A small business with just six employees, Hazama offers girlie outfits with fluffy skirts, as well as Gothic themes, kimono and sweaters in gradient colors, jackets with repetitive motifs evocative of Andy Warhol, sofas and coffee tables, and, of course, the shoes with the crazy heels.

One pair has a pistol trigger you can really pull though without any bullets, while another looks like it’s stuck in an alien’s blood-red teeth.

“Dark fantasy” is what Matsui calls his motifs. His imaginary world is filled with odd creatures like witches, scary penguins and iridescent polar bears, where objects suddenly melt, a face might get replaced by a giant rose, or a horrific hand grabs your heel from underground.

His brand’s spaces in-between are the filters through which Matsui sees and expresses his mesmerizing stories of the beginnings of time, inhabited by “the people” he’s concocted. He would love to have his own café or work on an animation project.

“Of course, cool people look great, no matter what they wear, but clothes can change the way you think, how you relate to