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Brand: COMME des GARÇONS x Salomon
Season: Fall/Winter 2021
Buy: Immediately at COMME des GARÇONS and Dover Street Market stores and October 28 on Dover Street Market’s web store
Editor’s Notes: Now, far be it for me to complain that COMME des GARÇONS’ footwear collaborations are too simple. Actually, quite the opposite: in an era of over-collaboration, CdG knows it doesn’t have to do much to make a good sneaker silhouette better. Look at its super simple 57/40, the upcoming Foamposite, the timeless PLAY Converse.
Ever since the Air Max 180, COMME has kept its sneakers pretty simple, ASICS aside. And even then, those are mostly just normal makeups in simple colorways offset by a splash of color or pattern.
The magic is in the minimalism. Sure, there are weird models and the occasional odd appliqué but the Japanese company usually makes its collaborative shoes as straightforward as its mainline clothing isn’t.
Such is the case for COMME des GARÇONS’ latest round of Salomon sneakers.
For Fall/Winter 2021, the duo are back in business with a set of collaborative XA-Alpine and Cross shoes. The former is very much of that understated ethos I mentioned earlier: it stripes everything extraneous from the bootlike sneaker and leaves the surface bare, aside from a contrasting COMME des GARÇONS logo on the lateral side.
No muss, no fuss.
Meanwhile, the Salomon Cross has more of a statement pattern, sporting a custom houndstooth upper made especially for this COMME des GARÇONS partnership and another big hit of branding. Otherwise, it’s basically the same sneaker.
Houndstooth is one of those conventionally unconvention patterns that CdG has gravitated to since its origins in the ’80s, in the same vein as COMME des GARÇONS’ appreciation for polka dot and basque stripe.
Too much pattern to handle? Just wait for COMME des GARÇONS’ Spring/Summer 2022 Salomons, the epitome of barebones sneaker design.
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