Images via Boxfresh
There's no denying that Boxfresh has had a huge impact in its thirty plus years. The brand that popularized its ultra-thin cupsoles, ran ground-breaking street-cast campaigns, and outfitted the majority of the cast of legendary British film Kidulthood. Now breathing new life into their footwear collections is designer Nick Drury, who's taking his inspiration from life, cities and the lifestyle we all lead.
We caught up with Nick at SEEK in Berlin, and spoke to him about the Fall/Winter 2016 footwear collection. Scroll to see what he had to say, and hold tight for the collection to drop later this year.
Why have you chosen to show in Berlin?
Germany is an important market for us and Berlin is such an iconic city, with all the shows happening at a similar time it’s a no brainer
Do you see a crossover between the urban culture in Britain and the culture in Berlin?
Today everybody has access to virtually everything, so definitely yes, and more and more each time I visit Berlin I can see that, despite there are the subtile differences and nuance, cultural references that are specific and the US influence is very strong in Germany, over all I think there is more cross over now than in the past.
Boxfresh has been going strong for thirty years now, how does that inform your work when designing for upcoming seasons?
We are very proud of our history and what that represents, however I believe that Boxfresh should always be contemporary: we are focused on the present and the future whilst being informed and guided by our heritage. The heart of the brand lies in the city, and in the idea of bringing together the unexpected in a very real way.
The brand has always been super vocal about their British identity, how much does that come into play when you’re designing each collection?
Of course London is our home and influences us a great deal, for its great energy and creativity which we love. The whole Britishness is there but we are more focused on the idea of the city and the urban environment as source of inspiration: it is not just about London, it is about the great cities all over the world, the architecture, the cultures, the energy…
A really iconic moment in Boxfresh’s history for me is kidulthood, where Boxfresh made up a lot of the wardrobe for the characters. Is that something you’ve ever looked to for inspiration in your work with the brand?
You are right, it was a great iconic moment for the brand, but it hasn’t been a direct influence: our focus is on having a contemporary approach to how we work.
The footwear offerings this season look great, what was the inspiration behind the collection?
It goes back to a lot of work we did as a team to really get to grips with what Boxfresh really meant to us, being inspired by our urban environment, the architecture, our streetwear heritage, being obsessed with details and understanding why the brand is so special.
What current trends are you seeing, and which are you trying to tap into this season?
The grey story is a big part of the Boxfresh look. Boots are definitely a thing and are set to grow, we have introduced our Wilslo range for AW16 which is a great new boot range with Thinsulate linings. We are also seeing heavier and more progressive sole profiles like our new Riley sole becoming more prominent. Overall there seems to be a shift to a more restrained and contemporary feel about things and that really suits where we are going for AW16 and beyond.
With the brand seemingly keen on a more forward thinking approach to design, how much emphasis is there on developing new technologies to keep pace with other brands?
We have been working on improving materials, treatments and techniques with the aim of creating something unexpected by bringing different elements together. We are also working right now at developing new techniques for next seasons: watch this space!
The introduction of boots to the range for AW16 is an interesting direction to take, do you see the collections continuing to widen in coming seasons?
Sure. We are re really excited about this range of products, and we already have new colours and additions cooked up for 2016 winter season: part of that is a limited triple black “Raincoat pack” where we have repurposed a backed and tightly woven fabric normally used in high quality Raincoats and we have used both sides of the fabric in different panels exposing the backer in places – it really looks great!