Shoe collaborations drop almost daily, but every so often, one comes along that’s an especially intriguing meeting of the minds. For resort ’16, a new capsule from Ancient Greek Sandals and Peter Pilotto is just that.
Christopher de Vos and Peter Pilotto, the London-based duo behind Peter Pilotto, worked with Ancient Greek Sandals‘s Corfu, Greece-based footwear designer, Christina Martini, on nine sandal styles that are available in a variety of neutrals and a colorful pinball digi-print. They’ll be available in November 2015, retailing from $315 to $715 for the Greece-made footwear.
We caught up with Pilotto and Martini to ask about their unique inspirations, working process and how to wear the resulting sandals. Click through the slideshow for a look at the complete collection.
Take me through how the design process began for this collection.
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Martini: “It started small, but then we started adding all these new colors. We used our trademark vachetta leather with no stitching, and we added metal rivets that [Peter Pilotto] used for the clothes.”
Pilotto: “It was a detail we had in the winter collection and used into the resort season as well. We had them developed from our inspiration of board and arcade games. The print was based on a pinball machine’s graphics. Weirdly, my parents had one when I was a child. It’s one of those things you never really analyze in terms of artwork, which we thought would be fun to explore. For this collaboration, we researched ancient Greek board games — that was the starting point. Their layouts were fascinating. It made so much sense to apply them to Greek-style sandals. We wanted to bring that energy and vibrancy.”
Why did you want to focus on flat sandals for resort ’16?
Pilotto: “The shoes have this pagan feel to them, but in an elegant way. We find it so cool to have long dresses with flat sandals. We just did our shoot in England at a beautiful old site similar to Stonehenge, so it has a very ancient feel. It could have been in Greece.”
What attracted you both to each other’s brand?
Pilotto: “Ancient Greekm [Sandals] has such a strong product. We didn’t have to think much — we really love what they do. The mix of our two worlds worked well together.”
Martini: “It was their prints and colors. I love the spirit of the brand and the clothes. My collection is more natural, more earthy, so it was nice to work with color and something more modern, too.”
How did you communicate with each other between London and Corfu to work on the project?
Martini: “It was all via email. Peter sent inspiration images, and I sent designs.”
Pilotto: “It was a very natural process and point of agreement. It wasn’t difficult at all — it felt natural.”
Peter, any plans to travel to Greece?
“We visited Athens last fall and loved it. We’re going again this summer — our travels are often related to our collections. It’s not conscious, but it just happens that our interests shift to one thing. We’re planning on Patmos.”
