Happy feet with a playful touch

Most of us expect our shoes to match but with Camper’s TWS collection, you get two unique pieces, each with their own personality that together form the perfect pair.
Miguel Fluxa Orti, chief executive officer of the brand was in Bangkok recently to visit the new Camper store at Central World. Designed by Marti Guixe under the concept “Camper Meeting Point” and decorated in red and white, it’s impossible to pass by without looking in the window.
Responsible for brand extension as well as the development of new ideas and collaborations, the young heir to the Spanish shoe brand reveals that the retail environment transmits the true values and the essence of Camper to the clients as much as the shoes do. “For us, creativity is in the core of our business and through our stores we want to express this creativity by creating spaces that are always different and always special,” he says.
“We are constantly working on delivering new ideas to the market and we do it with passion and creativity. We think differently and we want to be seen different, although not in a loud, showy way. We are serious about what we do, but we do not take ourselves too seriously, so we like to add a twist of understated imagination and irony to everything we do. We have a strong core belief that we try to transmit to consumers through product, retail and communication so that they can feel the Camper experience.”
Camper brand was founded in 1975 by Fluxa’s father, but its origins can be traced back 130 years to
 the days when his great grandfather, Antonio Fluxa, started Spain’s first shoe factory on the island of Mallorca. “The idea was to incorporate design into the company,” he says. “The first shoe – the Camaleon – was inspired by a Mallorcan peasant shoe, made out of used tyres, waste leather and canvas from carriages.”
This season, under the Camper’s Toðer (Together) concept, which has been enriched with the contributions of designers, architects, and artist, Jasper Morrison, a British designer has revived Camper’s first shoe with his very own interpretation of the iconic Camper classic. The “Country Trainer” model is a spin on a traditional and simple peasant shoe with a sporty touch.
“We work with people whose work we admire and think they can add something new to the brand and at the same time share some values. They can be very different in styles, but we like diversity,” says Fluxa.
Apart from Morrison, fans of Camper will also fall in love with Bernhard Willhelm and Romain Kremer’s Together’s collections. Willhelm’s famous sneaker is reinvented once again for spring and summer 2012 with an unusual mix of materials and high contrast colours to create an exuberant collection of fashionable shoes. A patchwork of messages, paper cut words and barricade tapes are brought together in a surprising range of footwear. Kremer is inspired by the Derby Shoe, which represents a unique take on a classic men’s style by using different colours combination and rubber to provide an unexpected twist to the design. Kremer’s visionary style is also featured in a cutting edge sandal for women.
For its new collection, Camper also introduces two new lines in the stylish group: “Chantal”, is the new feminine and elegant wooden high-heel pump, while “TWS Swash” is the fruit of a fashionable partnership between Sarah Swash and Toshio Yamanaka. Swash’s influence is the eccentric English humour whereas Yamanaka is a perfectionist in pattern cutting. Together they have found the perfect balance and have created a fascinating design.
There are also playful lines for kids that combine a mix of various textiles, techniques, colours, and creativity, such as the TWS for babies and Mary Jane shoes for the older child that are enlivened with a cute female cat on one foot that blinks at Mr. Cat on the other foot.
“I am not sure if I can call myself creative, at least in the sense of expressing myself through visual arts,” says Fluxa. “But creativity is a very important element at Camper, and I enjoy working with highly creative designers who develop shoe designs, as well as those who have collaborated with us on hotel and restaurant projects. Design is the DNA of the brand. When Camper was born, it united the heritage and know-how of making shoes together with design. We still think that these values are valid today and we try to update them with new people and new ideas.