This collaboration with the storied leather goods maker GUIDI was born, like many things at StyleZeitgeist, over a dinner with a friend. The resulting product is one of long-standing mutual respect and trust in each other’s understanding of a shared esthetic and cultural values.
Under the motto “less but better,” we decided to release only one style, a combat boot. I have never designed anything in my life (except my book case), and this was a highly rewarding experience. For this collab I decided to go to my teenage roots of dank goth clubs and industrial music, because if I get to only do one thing, that is what I inevitably gravitate to. It is darkness and depth, dissatisfaction and angst, all the more precious for its naivete, for its inevitably broken idealism. These boots are the sweat of a mosh pit, a torn t-shirt, a bloody nose. They are also a love letter to Ann Demeulemeester and Rick Owens, my two guiding lights who have shown me that fashion can be something other than facile glitz and conspicuous consumption. These boots are the armor the teenage me would have dreamed of having. And after my habit of buying boots from Ann and Rick in the women’s department, these boots are unisex.
This release is a limited edition of 150 pairs. The boots, style ER01V, take their departure point from GUIDI’s model GR05 V, to which I added a bunch of new design elements – the elongated shaft, the articulated tongue, antiqued zippers on both sides that allow for a nonchalant approach to wear, and zipper runner cover flaps with snaps that can be worn open or closed. The object-dyed boots are made from vegetable-tanned bison leather and are housed in a unique black wooden box, which I also designed.
The boots are available for pre-order on our website starting today and in carefully selected partner boutiques worldwide next spring. Our allocation is only one pair per size, from size 36 to size 46. Because the boots are object-dyed, I recommend sizing up. The boots will be shipped to you from the GUIDI factory in the first quarter of 2024.
