COLMAR CELEBRATES 100 YEARS WITH ARTIST JOSHUA VIDES
Oct 12, 2023
Antonia Sant’Andrea celebrates the 100th anniversary of Colmar with a special event and installation on Oct. 12 dedicated to men’s and women’s archival pieces alongside a celebratory capsule designed by Californian artist Joshua Vides. The 33-year-old Vides rose to instant success by customizing his first sneaker, a Nike Air Force 1, painted to create an optical illusion that resembled a black-and-white comic book. Today, he collaborates with many luxury and streetwear brands, as well as with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and Google. For his collaboration with Colmar, Vides delved into the brand's archives and manually intervened with his recognizable pictorial stroke on a handful of iconic bestsellers. He lent his touch to two jackets and a reversible padded vest, including the iconic 1249 down jacket. He also revisited the original Colmar logo from 1923 and reinterpreted the legendary 1970s jacket made for the Blue Avalanche ski team in a cashmere and wool Jacquard knit. “I usually start collaborations without a specific idea in mind,” said Joshua Vides. "I don't like to overthink it. I give myself the freedom to react to the stimuli of the moment and create the concept on the spot. In this particular case, I thought about what an artist has in common with an athlete: the idea of constant creativity in finding solutions, the best possible ones, to react to failure. The satisfaction of winning after failing several times, of standing on a podium and getting back up after a defeat."
