Ipanema has a new partner: Philippe Starck.
The designer and architect worked on spring and summer collections, called Ipanema with Starck, featuring four designs and 12 color options each. Priced from $30 to $40, the collaboration styles are produced in Brazil and will sell at retailers such as Shopbop.com, Opening Ceremony, Colette in Paris and 10 Corso Como in Milan.
Starck has always been interested in the shoe world, he told Footwear News:
“I’ve made rockets, the biggest boat in the world and high-tech products, but for me, I was always looking at shoes. I remember my grandmother telling me, you can be poor, but you always have to have clean shoes. It’s a real need. I travel a lot, and my estimation is that two-thirds of the world wears flip-flops,” he said. “I wanted to upgrade the product and uplift the people who will wear it.”
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Plus, the designer saw a void in the market.
“I went to a shop where I saw billions of flip-flops and tried to find the most simple [designs] — simple means elegance — but it was always bad. Bad printing, bad materials,” he said. “I said okay, it’s clear I have to work on the minimum.”
Added Starck of his creative process: “I am not a fashion designer. I’m not inspired by Mongolia or magnolias. I’m inspired by a goal. A vision,” he said. “The inspiration is us, who can wear the right product at the right price.”
The line is made of plastic and is 100 percent recyclable.
Starck isn’t stopping there — he’s already thinking about next season. “I have 120 models in the drawers. I don’t know if we shall use them all, but I have more under my foot,” he said. “Next season, I shall make some for men.”
