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Geoffrey B. Small F/W17 Men's - Paris

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  • Ahimsa
    Vegan Police
    • Sep 2011
    • 1879

    Geoffrey B. Small F/W17 Men's - Paris















    StyleZeitgeist Magazine | Store
  • Nickefuge
    Senior Member
    • Nov 2014
    • 860

    #2
    This is the kind of collection that makes me wanna quit my creative job and work for a soulless bank and earn lots of money, so I can afford every single item.
    "The only rule is don't be boring and dress cute wherever you go. Life is too short to blend in."
    -Paris Hilton

    Comment

    • upsilonkng
      Senior Member
      • May 2010
      • 874

      #3
      amazing, the clothes look great as well as material, absolutely not feeling the footwear? vans shit w/ this.. i guess if top heavy is the thing, $4000 suit $30 shoes?

      Comment

      • zamb
        Senior Member
        • Nov 2006
        • 5834

        #4
        Originally posted by upsilonkng View Post
        amazing, the clothes look great as well as material, absolutely not feeling the footwear? vans shit w/ this.. i guess if top heavy is the thing, $4000 suit $30 shoes?


        Except its not Vans, but GBS footwear, with the sneakers made from recycled leather. If you knew Geoffrey and his personal style then it would be difficult to understand the choice of footwear
        “You know,” he says, with a resilient smile, “it is a hard world for poets.”
        .................................................. .......................


        Zam Barrett Spring 2017 Now in stock

        Comment

        • upsilonkng
          Senior Member
          • May 2010
          • 874

          #5
          thats cool im sure they're nice quality, not feeling vans period artisanal or tradional, grew up in SoCal so I have been sick of Vans since i was about 14, that's not changing anytime soon, doesn't matter if it's made from the skin of ex wife beaters or lunar horse, it's still a $30 shoe to me and will never rise above surfer skater casual socal wear of teenagers and people who want to embrace that part of their childhood.

          Comment

          • zamb
            Senior Member
            • Nov 2006
            • 5834

            #6
            Originally posted by upsilonkng View Post
            thats cool im sure they're nice quality, not feeling vans period artisanal or tradional, grew up in SoCal so I have been sick of Vans since i was about 14, that's not changing anytime soon, doesn't matter if it's made from the skin of ex wife beaters or lunar horse, it's still a $30 shoe to me and will never rise above surfer skater casual socal wear of teenagers and people who want to embrace that part of their childhood.
            Fair enough,
            but I think when once is assessing fashion, we needn't be the reference point from which we judge things.
            Geoffrey's clothing is not my personal style, i probably wouldn't wear most of it on a day to day basis, but that does not mean i dont recognize the artistic expertise and technical mastery that goes into the work.
            In this Area of fashion he has ascended to a place where most cannot go because they neither have the Skill, the historical knowledge or the know how to develop this kind of structure.


            i have a pair of the sneakers. i would never wear Vans, but I wear the because they are NOT vans and other than maybe the shape, has nothing in common with vans.

            A Miata and a 991 GTS are not the same things, but you can drive both to the same place.............
            Last edited by zamb; 02-16-2017, 09:56 AM.
            “You know,” he says, with a resilient smile, “it is a hard world for poets.”
            .................................................. .......................


            Zam Barrett Spring 2017 Now in stock

            Comment

            • Geoffrey B. Small
              Senior Member
              • Nov 2007
              • 618

              #7
              on SoCal youth traumas and our shoes

              Thank you Zamb.. very appreciated, hope your GBS trainers are still holding up after all these years, let me know...


              Now as for dear upsilonkng… my goodness, please accept sincerest apologies on the part of myself and everyone involved here in Italy at Cavarzere and San Zenone for having triggered such an immense post-traumatic-stress reaction to our FW2017 collection shoes. What you would prefer..? Perhaps some Carpe Diem derivative designs like so many other brands discussed on these threads? Or maybe the sneaker that the Owens Corp folks built an empire on that got them sued by Nike because it was so derivative? Or perhaps even a visit to a good therapist might be the best option to try to resolve those intense feelings against our poor little shoe.


              For the record, our shoes in the photos are not a $30 shoe, or Vans. I don't think that you really know what a 30 dollar shoe is. Why don't you try and make a pair of shoes yourself? You might find that for all the work, time and materials to get them done, 30 dollars would be a joke for someone like you. A little respect then perhaps for people who have to make shoes. And I would dare say a little respect for the Van Dorens who have spent 2 generations building and trying to keep alive a great American footwear manufacturing story that started out in Anaheim in 1966 making shoes that sold direct to the public in a factory behind the first store. Like many of their period, the Van Dorens eventually gave up control of their company to corporate buyers (they are now owned by VF) and their manufacturing was moved out to China and Vietnam, but nobody can take away the fact that they created one of the great regional west-coast brands for sport shoes and a particular culture there, and frankly your anger towards their achievement is your problem not mine and doesn't belong on our collection thread. With all the whining and complaining about the lack of jobs, artisanship, making things and skills we hear about all the time these days (especially on SZ), America could use a few more stories like the Van Doren's one. Indeed, the same can now be said just as easily for Europe and sadly, Italy too. So before we go any further, I don't agree with you knocking Vans at all, as a company or as a product. But like I said the shoes are not Vans.


              And they are not just "nice quality", they are incredible quality. They were made with great pain, effort and passion by our long-time footwear collaboration partner Giuseppe Rebesco and will be selling in our selected dealers stores at well over 18-20 times your esteemed valuation. Less than 30 pairs will be built for the world this season, each one individually by Giuseppe himself and his team of 3 people including his wife. And they will last forever. But maybe, you could care less. You are not alone. For many years, we have been trying to explain to the industry and the public about the immense problems that our industry- both in clothing and also in footwear-are perpetually vomitting on our environment, our resources, and our fellow human beings on the planet. If you prefer to give your money to the footwear firms and designers that collaborate with them, that are using and adding mountains of plastics and petrochemical synthetics into the environment, and using perpetual slave labor and the abuse of millions of people to make their product for your incessant consumption, or more recently even abusing intellectual property rights and exploiting their own customers to provide them with free advertising and PR campaign materials (I will refrain from giving any names at this point to protect the guilty)... well then, that is your decision. I am certainly not going to associate them or use them with my Paris collections and presentations, my name or my work.


              And unlike many these days, rather than just complain about the problem, for years now Giuseppe and I have been doing something about it…creating and providing an alternative to address these issues especially for sport shoes. Slowly and steadily we have been creating our own beautiful, sustainable and totally ethically-produced versions of classic sneaker and sport shoes, and a lfollowing for them. While the market and impact of the handmade goodyear welt and similar types of leather shoe market is one thing, we felt that nobody was offering a real handmade sustainable/ethical sneaker or trainer collection alternative to the massive sport shoe market with all of its huge ramifications and all of its potential customers. As they say, there is no disputing taste. And not everybody for a variety of reasons, is going to want to wear the latest trend-design-thing from geo-baskets, to Rick adidas, to Y3, to Kanyuck, to Supreme x LVMH, to Nike, or even CCP drips for that matter. For some… in fact for many, even artisan leather shoes with too much turn at the sole is well, too much... especially for the guy who really can buy the 4000 euro (or more) suit in the pictures.


              But most of us do love to wear comfortable shoes. The size and growth of the sport shoe industry over the past 50 years is the definitive evidence of that. Our goal in this regard is to provide our customer with the most comfortable, and the best quality hand-build option for this type of footwear possible, and guarantee the maximum taste, elegance, sustainability, and of course, ethical creation and manufacture. After extensive research and trials, our focus has been on historical early-mid 20th century vulcanized rubber sole sport shoe designs. There are many many reasons for this that are based not only on beautiful simple aesthetics that work flawlessly with our super handmade clothes, and extreme comfort that also complements the extreme comfort of our clothes, but also on the practical realities and technologies of making shoes in a sustainable and ultra-quality handmade manner in extreme limited editions series of production. We believe a totally first-class handmade version of a classic skater shoe, is a very viable and worthy addition to our line of classic sport shoes and that our growing following in the world of these shoes will enjoy and appreciate.


              But even to call it a skater shoe alone is misleading. The fact is Van's was the last of a small number of great American footwear firms to create sport shoes with vulcanized rubber technology. Vulcanization of rubber was patented in the 1840's by Charles Goodyear and by the time they opened shop in Anaheim in 1966, the 3 founders of Vans (then called the Van Doren rubber company) had already worked for 20 years in Boston at the Randy's sneaker factory (makers of Bob Cousy basketball hi-top shoes). In fact, they ended up in California because they were sent there to run a Randy's branch factory that had been set up there and was losing money. The East Coast was where the action had all started. And way before them there was BF Goodrich's PF Flyers, as well as the legendary Converse factory also in Boston, and then the first of them all-- Keds and the US Shoe Corporation of which this writer's great grandfather was one of its five co-founders. Designs for uppers ranged from high to low, lace-ups with 2-3-4-5 holes, even slip-ons you name it and while the soles remained similar nobody across that long period of operations really had any monopoly on any particular shape or upper. So if you know your stuff, the basic form and concept of our shoe design can be dated before Vans was even founded.


              We feel strongly about this, even if some here remain stuck in a certain mindset. And we are committed to vulcanized natural rubber sole technology for it is a key fundamental in the battle to combat the massive evils and problems that anyone involved in global environmental and ethical production issues knows far too much about when it comes to sport shoes. The alternative technology is cold-cure rubber sole with all of its plastic, chemical, and enormous volumes and scale requirements that lay at the heart of all that is wrong with the entire business model (and I would strongly argue the design model as well) of companies like Adidas, Nike, Puma, New Balance and UA--and the designers that collaborate and profit from it. Indeed, if you know the real history of Vans, and how it got into trouble, you will understand this.


              We also felt very strongly that the shoe we built coincided very well with the 'secrets' collection, its styling, and its message. Like all of our work since 1979, we hope that people will begin to see beyond the superficial surface of things and understand that there is far more to a design than just the way it looks on the outside. We are not just a 'look,' and should not be judged only as such. If we decide to make our extreme handmade version of a classic design whether it is a simple shoe or an ultra traditional single-breasted notch-lapel jacket, we view that as our right and frankly if we do our job-would challenge anybody else out there in the world to do it better. From the beginning, we have designed from the inside out. And to understand design, again I will always stress, one needs to understand process as well. For some perhaps, that is too much to ask. That is OK too- we cannot be for everybody and we are not trying to be.


              We are quite sure that if you experienced the real thing beyond a screen photo, and opened your mind even a tad bit beyond snap decisions based on such, you might form a different opinion of our shoe. And if we knew you a little better we might arrange to make you a pair and send them to you on the house to begin to experience the difference. Perhaps that would help you even more than a good therapist visit to begin to get over your 14-year old's trauma experience in SoCal with Vans issues. That is not our problem, nor what those shoes are about in any sense of the word. Thanks anyway for your otherwise kind comments.


              With respect and our best wishes and cheers,

              Geoffrey & the Team

              Comment

              • Mojo1990
                Member
                • Oct 2015
                • 31

                #8
                Geoffrey,
                This is kinda related, but could you perhaps explain the general thrust/concept behind designers modeling suits with trainers/sneakers? Has it got to do with going against the status quo? I'm new to all of this. It's really interesting. I've always been told to "never wear trainers with trousers". Where do "we"draw the line of acceptability (presuming it was ever" wrong"?

                Kind regards,
                Mustafa

                Comment

                • Geoffrey B. Small
                  Senior Member
                  • Nov 2007
                  • 618

                  #9
                  Originally posted by Mojo1990 View Post
                  Geoffrey,
                  This is kinda related, but could you perhaps explain the general thrust/concept behind designers modeling suits with trainers/sneakers? Has it got to do with going against the status quo? I'm new to all of this. It's really interesting. I've always been told to "never wear trainers with trousers". Where do "we"draw the line of acceptability (presuming it was ever" wrong"?

                  Kind regards,
                  Mustafa

                  Sure Mustafa, it began perhaps with some of the greatest dressers of all-time, the Beatles. Just look at the cover of Abbey Road, or watch Get Back or google John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Then it became more mass culture dress--in the early 80's mainly with women who were entering and rising in the white collar workforce more and more in the US main cities like New York, Boston, SF etc.... they had to wear suits to work and just couldn't deal with the high heels at the time for wearing the full day including long commutes. They were also started to do gym, running and workout programs before and after work. So in Manhattan or Boston you would see hundreds of women wearing suits and sneakers in the streets and subways getting from and going to work. They would change into their dress shoes once they got in to work. Even back then the message was clear, footwear for office and dress work had to get more comfortable and functional for getting around, and get up to speed with all the footwear tech that was happening in sport shoes. Then, again on the male side--certain types who wore suits but did not have to answer to anybody started wearing sneakers and giving out the same message, perhaps the biggest was David Letterman who had a massive TV audience for his legendary Late Night show and started wearing a lot of half decent double-breasted suits with shirts and ties, only to confound the viewer by hooking them up with trainers on the bottom. He was on fire at that time with an intelligent act and a lot of power both media-wise and financial, and his message was clear, 'yeah I wear a suit and tie and I don't have to cramp my feet into a pair of black shiny laceups like the rest of the office lackeys. I can run around and be comfortable in my sneakers, because... I call the shots and the dress code is up to me not you.' Casual style was also on a massive growth trend that would change the industry for the next 25 years. And slowly, in a lot of business and professional areas... the guy who dressed the most lazy, comfortable and casual of all the people in the office began to be more often than not, the owner of the place. In the early 80's there was also some great use of sneakers and suits in the British punk and new wave movements that are still hard to beat even today. In Paris, we were one of the very first to show sneakers with suits and avant-garde collections in 1994 and 1995 when we pioneered designer streetwear. Like others who soon followed us, we envisioned a newer elegant take on combining the comfort and functionality of these types of shoes with elegant tailored silhouettes. As the streetwear movement exploded (see the GBS designer thread posts from last December for a more complete story), more and more designers showed this kind of look. Then Prada came in with their own shoes and took it in their direction and made a fortune. Within a few years every major brand had to have some sort of sport shoe going on... even Comme who started working with Spring Court (and then dozens of others including Converse) and Yohji who started with the best Adidas collaboration ever done of all time in 2000, which later evolved into Y3. So the idea is really nothing new at all. It's been around for a long time and I am sure somebody even before the Beatles during the beatnik era was already doing it too. The key to doing it well lies in the choice of the combinations, how it looks and what it says about the wearer. Hope this helps. thanks for your question, Geoffrey

                  Comment

                  • Mojo1990
                    Member
                    • Oct 2015
                    • 31

                    #10
                    Dear Geoffrey,

                    Thank you for the wealth of information! That certainly was useful :)
                    Musical icons pulling on the heart strings.

                    Comment

                    • clay
                      Senior Member
                      • Sep 2006
                      • 284

                      #11
                      G, I love when you break shit down! Keep it up as we all learn something, not just the target.

                      Comment

                      • negroygris
                        Senior Member
                        • Aug 2013
                        • 270

                        #12
                        Geoffrey B. Small I always love learning design history from you, definitely the work of the Van Dorens shouldn't be forgotten, unfortunately we live in a world of fast fashion and consumerism which indeed fails to educate the consumer, as to know that less is more, sadly it is getting worst. Personally i try my best to educate those around me around tradition of construction and in this case a tradition passed down through generations. I have been following your work for quite a while now, not sure if you remember meeting me at The Zoo once in Toronto with Jakub, a couple years ago. Also, I Love this collection overall as always, your work is definitely worth a few of my pay checks indeed since I am still a student, Geoffrey will you further explained to me where the idea of the white shirt with the double collar layered on top came from, also the buttons are they mother of pearl?
                        We hope that people will begin to see beyond the superficial surface of things and understand that there is far more to a design than just the way it looks on the outside.

                        -GEOFFREY B. SMALL

                        Comment

                        • Faust
                          kitsch killer
                          • Sep 2006
                          • 37852

                          #13
                          Originally posted by vickiee
                          Dresses are good, but some models are weird in it.
                          Best of SZ
                          Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                          StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                          Comment

                          • Geoffrey B. Small
                            Senior Member
                            • Nov 2007
                            • 618

                            #14
                            negroygris reply: SES08 buttons, plastic, slavery and other design criterium

                            Originally posted by Faust View Post
                            Best of SZ

                            Yes Faust...awesome quote. We have always coveted a best of SZ award comment on our threads.
                            thanks so much vickiee, weird sounds great to us... and congratulations.


                            And thanks negroygris for your kind comments. It was great to meet you in Toronto, and keep up the good work! Don't be sad. Fast fashion and bloated consumerism is what it is--totally unsustainable. Repeat: unsustainable. It will not last. And its destructive, violent and criminal practices will turn on itself and its supporters soon enough--like a cancer that kills the host body it lives in and thus, its own source of sustenance as well--and by so doing kills itself. What is important for those few like you who are beginning to pay attention to things, is to get away from them as far as you can. For example, note that there is a giant retailer from the rising sun that is trying to expand beyond its home market right now because at home its own workers are now coming out en masse against it nationwide for its inhumane, cruel and slavery-like conditions in all of its stores and facilities. It is now a nationwide scandal, and so, rather than heal itself at home, it decides to cut and run to other countries and other markets with its slick outer image still intact where both the public and the workforce are unaware of its monstrous practices. Yet. But word will get out. You cannot wear anything from this company and feel good about it, without feeling good about profiting yourself from the slavery, misery, pain and suffering of other human beings going down underneath your feet. Let's all think about it each time we approach a clothing, shoe or accessory purchase. Let's make the connection between ourselves and where that item came from and who is behind it, and where our money will go and what it will support. What goes around comes around.


                            Now regarding the shirt question... First, of course the buttons are real mother-of-pearl--unlike our fast fashion colleagues and even unfortunately many other designer colleagues watched on this forum, from fabric to thread to buttons--we are leading an industry battle to get out of using plastics in clothing design. Our industry has single-handedly contaminated all of the oceans in the world with plastic and our industry needs to deal with that responsibility starting with "avant-garde" designers who can show that indeed there is an alternative that the rest of the industry can follow--if they want to. You can have all the big museum shows, coffee table books and celebrity parties you want, but if the bottom line is your very beautiful work is nothing but window-dressing for the poisoning of all humanity and almost every single biological living thing on this planet... then I think you and I both know we can do a little better, no?


                            Maybe you don't wanna spend the money or take the "risk" with your profit margins. Fine, lead, follow, or get out of the way... we'll do it for you. Example: the all-natural biodegradable absolutely gorgeous super buttons for the SES08 were made only for us by the greatest living button-makers in the world today, Claudio and Cinzia Fontana, beautifully incision-cut in miniature flying dove design patterns which are clearly, as evidenced in our images below... extraordinary; and never before done on designer shirts of this quality or any other-- hand stitched in pure Italian silk threads just like their accompanying buttonholes-- all part of the first-in-the-world advanced research work done on the 'secrets' aw2017-18 men's collection. The double-collar design idea was first developed for the GBS RSS04 handmade shirt in the SS2016 'Radicallissimmo' collection and was produced in silk and cotton stripe versions in extreme limited edition series for Darklands in Berlin, Provogue in Nagoya and AL Select in Kichijoji in 2016 and this spring. The new SES08 was part on an all-white shirt story done for 'secrets' and was cut using Luigi Parisotto's superlux super 120's double-twist 'Venezia' luxury cotton shirting cloth made only for us and will be available this fall exclusively in hand washed white at Ink in Hong Kong (see photos) and a special hand dyed black version at Eth0s in Shanghai. Here below, some photos of the prototype in our workrooms at Via Spalato...


                            Hope this is informative, cheers and thanks again to all.


                            Geoffrey & the team



























                            The beautiful incision-cut real mother-of-pearl buttons on the SES08 handmade supershirt
                            were made exclusively for us in Italy by the greatest living button-makers in the world today,
                            Claudio and Cinzia Fontana. A testament to our uncompromising standards of excellence
                            and belief in the passion, the power and the value, of the human being in the 21st century.
                            And one more reason why GBS clothes are unlike anything else out there.

                            Comment

                            • negroygris
                              Senior Member
                              • Aug 2013
                              • 270

                              #15
                              Geoffrey B. Small It is true all these retailers only care about equity, their integrity is lost, they just keep mass producing non-degradable product that doesn't sell, and then it ends up being shipped to Haiti to create more land mass waste. It is sad and I do pray one day humanity itself will become aware of the atrocities these conniving enterprises are doing to our mother nature.

                              Claudio and Cinzia's work speaks detail and craftsmanship, not only does this make the garment itself special but it tells of story of tradition.

                              Thank you Geoffrey for sharing the meaning and story of your timeless designs.
                              We hope that people will begin to see beyond the superficial surface of things and understand that there is far more to a design than just the way it looks on the outside.

                              -GEOFFREY B. SMALL

                              Comment

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