CHANTAL FOR WOMEN By Beatriz Delgado, Camper Designer.
The idea behind Chantal was to design a feminine product in line with the latest fashion trends.
Women are an important source of inspiration for me. The female essence is so rich and complex that it never fails to provide me with a springboard for my work, reflecting my personal need to express gender & sexuality. Basically, it’s always the same idea approached from different angles and given different twists each time: the desire to seduce.
Chantal? …I don’t recall exactly why I chose that name, although I do remember that I imagined them on Vanessa Chantal Paradis and liked the idea, so I took her as my point of reference for the line.
When I imagine someone wearing my shoes, I usually envision them on naked or indistinct bodies. That way, the shoes take centre stage in an almost surreal way, giving me more freedom to work on them. Then I dress up those bodies as if they were paper dolls, mixing and matching at will, which allows me to create many variations of style.
Chantal was featured at the fashion show of the Spanish label “SoloLaVerdadEsSexy” during the 080 Barcelona Fashion Week. Something along those lines, I just love it.
Achieving an end result that faithfully reflects the designer’s idea is not easy. I like Chantal because everyone who worked on it truly cared about the project, and the end result is actually an improvement on the original idea. They are also very well-made from a technical standpoint, and it pleases me to know that whoever wears these shoes will feel good in them!
You can find Chantal shoes at Camper E-shop: http://cam.pr/chantal
PAU FOR MEN By Jumpei Ushiyama, Camper Designer.
When I started working on this model, the idea was to provide smart and elegant looking mens shoes with high comfort and performance. At the time, I was thinking about young city living professionals who have very versatile lifestyles. My aim was that someone could go to the office with these shoes but then go to a party straight after work wearing them. I love the way that everything is more casual now, particularly in offices where people dress down much more.
With its elegant slim last and soft leather uppers Pau looks like a classic brogue, but it features a rubber outsole instead which gives it a casual twist. This way Pau can be worn either with a suit or smart denim. It means that you can wear it for a wedding but also for casual occasions or going out on the town. Most importantly, I hope that the shoe is really comfortable for whatever you´re doing. The name of the shoe is from Paul Newman – “Pau” is Paul in Catalan.
Pau shoes are available at Camper E-shop: http://cam.pr/paushoes
Camper opens its first Together store in Osaka, the first outside Japan’s capital. It has been designed by Nendo, the young studio founded by Oki Sato which has already gained international acclaim after barely ten years. The new space has a distinctly minimalist look and produces the delightful sensation of weightlessness.
“We appreciated the fact that the raison d’être of Camper shoes is not to help people run faster, or assign a recognisable status by wearing a prestigious brand, but simply to contribute to the pleasure of walking, which is why in our design for the interior of the store the shoes seem to float in the air and stroll about the place. The ones on display for sale float as well. They are placed on barely discernible stands―their own footprints—fixed to thin tubes rising out of the floor. The angles and positions of the footprints scattered around the walls and ceiling vary slightly, creating a specific route from one part of the store to another and producing the illusion that the shoes are actually walking in slow motion.” NENDO
Oki Sato (Toronto, 1977), the founder of Nendo, studied Architecture at the Waseda University in Tokyo and opened the studio in that city in 2002. Nendo is a multidisciplinary studio embracing architecture, interior design, events, furniture, products and graphic design. Despite the characteristic hallmark of oriental creativity, neither the studio nor its projects can be described as classical. Oki Sato’s preferred language is “ethereal”, which his team of collaborators interpret and reproduce with the same voice, enabling him to fulfil his numerous commissions. The studio has been warmly received in the west by leading companies such as Cappellini, Cartier, Driade, Fritz Hansen, Hermès, Kartell, Moroso, Puma and Thonet, among a long list of clients. So much so, that in 2005 the studio decided to open a branch in Milan. The work accomplished since then has led this year, 2012, to the Wallpaper* Designer of the Year award.
The design that Oki Sato has produced for Camper is his first project for a Together store but not Nendo’s first collaboration with the brand. A few years ago the studio designed the Camper stand at Bread & Butter, when this international tradeshow for selected brands was still held in Barcelona. For the store in Osaka, the team has designed an exquisitely subtle white, ethereal space to make the shoes feel comfortable.
The store hosts men’s and women’s collections. You can check the exact location at our store locator.
Camper presents, a limited collection in collaboration with the English brand, Swash.
This new line belongs to the Camper’s “Twins Artista” concept, a project that started in 1992 and shows the relationship between Camper and the worlds of art, design and fashion.
A new vision of Twins has been created now by Sarah Swash and Toshio Yamanaka, the founders of Swash. These two designers, who studied at the prestigious Central Saint Martins College in London, have as their hallmark hand-printed illustrations (hand-drawn by Toshio and hand-painted by Sarah) inspired by 19th century botanical drawings and the idea of creating a Swash’ Cabinet de Curiosités’ but translated into a world of surrealistic aesthetics that takes one back to childhood tales and stories.
The result of this new collaboration is a very feminine and romantic collection, with styles of different heights and full of classic details. Two different patterns have been developed for it. The first one presents nautical figures like traditional fisherman’s knots, anchors, compasses and diving helmets, that bring back, with nostalgia, a summer spirit from the past.
On the other hand, the second print recalls a dream and fantasy world through a kaleidoscope of multi-coloured balloons that come from studying depictions of early flying machines – “Dream Machines” – which were the ultimate sky ride and a utopian summer’s pastime in the early 19th century.
Like in all Twins, in this new collection each shoe has its own personality, but when part of a pair, they represent a scene which makes them indivisible.
A collection filled with creativity, imagination and fantasy that prove that there is a different way of walking.
You can find Twins by Swash at our online store.
Today Camper opens a new store in Montrel which is the first in Canada. The store is located in 928 Sainte-Catherine Street, the primary commercial artery of Downtown Montreal.
The design of the store was made by Gaetano Pesce as part of the Camper Together Project.
Born in La Spezia, Italy, in 1939, Gaetano Pesce, an architect-artist-designer based in New York City, has undertaken diverse commissions in architecture, urban planning, interior and exhibition design, industrial design and publishing. In more than forty years of practice, Pesce has conceived public and private projects in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia, from residences to gardens and corporate offices. Pesce’s extensive body of work – recognized for its emotive and tactile qualities, unrestrained use of color, and insistence upon innovative building materials developed through new technologies – has been described by prominent architecture critic Herbert Muschamp as “the architectural equivalent of a brainstorm”.
Gaetano Pesce shared with us some draws of his project for Camper, we hope you enjoy them.
If you want to know more about this incredible artist you can visit his web: www.gaetanopesce.com
On March, as part of our upcoming Spring/Summer 2012 season, Hong Kong’s underground users will find a special Camper indoor campaign in the upper platform trackside to Chai Wan Station.
Check our advertisement’s teaser:
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