Life on Foot, the exhibition of Camper's story of shoe making is on at the Design Museum.
Lorenzo Fluxa founded Camper after inheriting his father's shoe factory in Mallorca in 1975, introducing the camper logo, the Red Bridge, in 1981 with his first store in Barcelona.
Camper has been around for 40 years and despite spending my sixth-form weekends working in a shoe shop, Manfield in Chesham High Street, I had never heard of them until five or six years ago. That's when I bought a pair of their slippers, which are still going strong. I love those slippers.
Rainbows of camper shoes and materials.
Camper produces sustainable and ethical footwear. The first camper shoes experimented with used recycled car tyres for soles.
These shoes below are fully bio-degradable, experimenting with hemp and coconut. "Those grey ones on the right look a little like my slippers."
I applaud their commitment to sustainable materials, but can see that wearing cork is perhaps a little more suitable to the Spanish climate than ours.
In an average collection of Camper shoes, over 350 materials are used, components that remind me of "Ink Blots". I can't help myself looking for things in the shapes and checking to see if the patterns are symmetrical.
The shoe box, "a basic yet important part of footwear manufacture and retailing". Too right. What is so appealing about a brand new shoe box? It's not as if we keep them (for long).
However good packaging has always been so appealing. It's strange though, with the power of packaging to tempt us to purchase, you generally get to see a shoebox after you have decided to buy the shoes. "Do you want the Box?" I always asked as a teenager in Manfield. Now the shoe's on the other foot (sorry), I get asked this when I buy my kids shoes. Of course they want the box, a new home for a toy hamster, a lunar landscape, a treasure chest, the possibilities are endless and made even more appealing by boxes like these.
From this archive material we can see that it wasn't just about the shoe and manufacturing, but Camper's concepts extended to the designs of packaging and visual merchandising too.
Camper regularly collaborates with graphic designers,
...and store designers.
Camper regularly collaborates with graphic designers,
...and store designers.
White moulded shoes from the wall of a Camper store in new York, 2014.
Life on Foot is on at the Design Museum until 1st November 2015.
Details on their website here.
What ever happened to Manfield?
That looks fascinating..., but what do you mean you don't keep shoe boxes for long? Practically my entire filing system is based around them. (I decoupage them according to topic......)
ReplyDeleteI once had to visit Barker's of Earls Barton for work and was shown around their factory. Not sustainable materials in any particular way - their stock is almost entirely leather - but I was very impressed with the stages involved in making something I used to take for granted.
Looks like a good exhibition. Thanks for sharing.
(I think Manfield followed Freeman Hardy and Willis to the great footpath in the sky.....)
I looked it up too (On Wikipedia). It does seem that it was first taken over by Freeman Hardy Willis, before heading to the great footpath in the sky. Sat and chatted about this with friends, remembering Dolcis & Saxone. Then we moved on to pixie boots. I wore them to school.
DeletePS... Take a look here: http://www.mylearning.org/victorian-shoemakers-in-northampton/interactive/2412/
ReplyDeleteIt's great sounding name "Fluxa" - makes me think of art movements!
ReplyDeleteA really interesting exhibition, something I would never have got to have seen so thank you for sharing. All those shoes look so comfortable. My first job when I left school was in a shoe shop and I hated it!
ReplyDeleteLisa x
Another exhibition to put on the list. I like the Design Museum very much and this looks like an interesting one to see. (The address of the Siva Temple is Clarendon Rise off Lee High Road http://www.londonsivankovil.org.uk/)
ReplyDeleteIt would never come into my mind to visit a shoe designer exhibition, I never pay attention to shoes and wouldn't even notice if you walk around in slippers besides me, lol !
ReplyDeleteI love Camper shoes, and have had a few pairs over the years. Always very comfortable and interesting to look at. Wish I was closer to go to the exhibition, but as ever, thank you for taking us with you! Yes I well remember Saxone, and Dolcis! X
ReplyDeleteFascinating! Amazing exhibition and shoes! Of course you need the box, I hate it when they don't let you have the box! xx
ReplyDeleteSo interesting, Katharine. I have never heard of Camper, but they do look very comfy and ecologically excellent. Love the shoe boxes - I would definitely not throw them away. Sometimes I cover a plain shoe box with nice paper as a storage piece. A great idea for an Exhibition.
ReplyDeleteWho would have thought shoes could be part of a Museum exhibition? But it does look interesting! I also worked in a fancy shoe shop in South Africa in my last 3 years of high school. I loved it as I could buy shoes at 50% discount, which made me a bit of a shoeaholic. I have a pair of flat cork shoes that I bought in Portugal on my last visit in March, and I love them.
ReplyDeleteShoe-makers cleverly divided the work into cutting, assembling and finishing. Apprentices only learned one facet of the process which prevented them setting up in business on their own. However three of them could get together.....and that's how we got Freeman, Hardy and Willis.
ReplyDelete