Yes, trade shows… for the most part they really suck. The dog and pony show at the shows and the whole after party thing is so tired that the best part about trade shows coming to town are all the great friends that roll through NYC during the week. It’s great to have an opportunity to hang out over a few drinks and good conversation.
Just about the only trade show that doesn’t make my skin crawl is Capsule which just concluded last night. It’s the first one I have not attended. I just decided on Monday morning when I woke up that I just didn’t feel like hanging around ‘fashion’ people (I know I’m a self hating mother fucker).
Luckily, the whole web was there for me (us), ready to disperse the information across the blogosphere with their take or a regurgitation of someones elses take on what was worth seeing.
One man who is definitely not regurgitating someone else’s point of view is my boy Chuck Welch who is behind RUPTUREreport. I’ve been sleeping on giving Chuck a plug here for months but if you haven’t visited his site, give it a try. Chuck put up a good little recap on what he saw at Capsule this week. And by the sounds of it and from the looks of what has been on the blogs, there wasn’t much newness being shown.
All that being said, after I visit LA next week I have commited to being at Compass next month. What can I say, a man has to work.
Yuketen, as a company, in many ways is like a bored inventor who has done it all and is ready to just have some fun with his craft. Yuketen has done just about every conceivable authentic New England style shoe you can think of and now they are taking many of their own classics and turning them on their heads.
At Capsule we found that Yuketen had essentially taken every style upper they do and mixed and matched them with unconventional outsole choices. The Spring/Summer 2010 Ring Boot pictured above is a perfect example of this. They took the classic Ring Boot they are known for and placed it on a thick, heeled boat shoe outsole, making for, in our opinion, a much more compelling shoe. But they didn’t stop there, they did them in array of oily tumbled nubucks including the crimson and lime colors you see here. We are always searching for new ways to freshen up old looks and we think this is the way to go next Spring.
Takeshi Ohfuchi’s Post Overalls is the seminal American made Japanese workwear brand, having been around since 1993. The label’s roots are derived from vintage work clothes, military outfits, and outdoor garments, and has stayed true to that from the start. The labels Engineer Jacket epitomizes that having been in the line since it’s inception.
We have another video feature with Mr. Ohfuchi coming soon. Stay tuned.
Although Camper was pushing their “Together” line to the forefront at Capsule we found some very nice in-line shoes hiding on the floor of their booth. One being the Alfie Blucher pictured above.
The Alfie Blucher is a very simple and classic plain-toe blucher pattern - nothing new there - but where this product becomes special is with the choice of outsole and material. Camper has applied the pattern to a classic boat shoe bottom taking this trend to a new place. The shoe was then done in very nice tones of charcoal grey and rich brown ballistic nylon. The monochromatic uppers mixing subtle tonal changes between the upper and laces with gunmetal eyelets on paperwhite outsoles are a perfect mix.
The Yuketen booth at Capsule had hundreds of skus just waiting to be ordered by retailers. Once you see all that they do in one place you get a much better idea how the shoes are really what the retailer wants them to be and not a carefully curated collection to be chosen from season to season. That’s not to say that is a bad thing, in fact for an innovative retailer it is an amazing opportunity to create a very unique selection for their individual stores. You can see shots of the array of styles lined up on tables at some other sites but we pulled aside what we loved most to feature here.
The crepe soled Penny Loafers pictured above were some of our favorite shoes not just at Capsule but maybe, dare we say, ever. It shares the same Brazilian crepe outsole as the wonderful Ranger Moc that evaporated from stores earlier this year. They had it both in brown fullgrain with natural stitch and tan suede. The chunkier sole and last make for a perfect casual penny loafer you can be comfortable in year-round.
It’s no surprise that Camper is doing interesting things - it’s sort of their forte, but some of their shoes have taken on some shapes we might otherwise not have expected from the brand. Camper has a new collab line called “Together” that they featured prominently at this weeks Capsule show. There were many interesting and odd shoes but the simplest silhouette attracted us the most.
The Together Veronique (pictured above) designed in collaboration with artist-designer, Jaime Hayon, was a simple and slick departure from the quirkiness you expect from Camper. Unlike many of the shoes that are a part of the “Together” line, the very straight last was created specifically for the designer and is not found in the mainline. They’ve pushed many “trad-ish” details through the Camper design filter to create something fresh. It’s a plain-toed blucher with a leather contrast stitch welt and a pretrimed rubber outsole - not a description you expect for a Camper shoe but it all makes for a great marriage. The shoe is light and a perfect transitional shoe.
We will be at (capsule) New York for parts of both days of the show, July 20-21. BPMW has basically created the only trade show that doesn’t make my skin crawl. It’s always a good mix of designers and people, so we are looking forward to it. We are still nailing down our plans but we should be bringing you some interesting tidbits here.
