“Happy to see you again!”, with such a proactive mood we set out for the Hotel JK in Florence where Geox is about to present its SS15 Collection for the last edition of Pitti Immagine Uomo. Here we have the pleasure of meeting once again Patrick Cox, the partner of the brand for this season. We talk about this and that. We have some coffee together. We take photos. Then his eyes light up and he starts to tell his story.
The capsule is an interesting and innovative mash-up. A mix of military and urban influences of which the link with the sea is almost the élément moteur.
Fucking Young! – Hello Patrick! In our previous interview we spoke about your life, your career, your dreams. This time we will focus on the SS15 Capsule Collection designed once again for Geox. Let’s talk about it…
Patrick Cox – Three words: Army, Navy and City. Army is in the khaki green, in the shades of sand, in the browns, in the camouflage print used as lining. Navy is in the white and blue nuances and namely in the model itself which I have chosen to put the sailor node and the sail lines on.
Among my favorite models, the hybrid between the car-shoe and the boot-shoe. I’ve always been a fan of hybrids, even more since I have started my collaboration with Geox. I think in the world anything possible has been already created, now it’s time to mix and transform. Another model that I really like is the one in which the lines are those of a ‘high-top basketball but applied to an ideal shape with desert-inspired boot. I have liked to mix the two, the obtained look is much easier.
The sneakers are not missing, of course. I’ve designed one model that is not exactly a high-top but stops at the ankle. I really like this deep especially now that pants shorter than usual are used.
The general mood is typically urban… That of the city, as I told you. Fed up with everything aged, for years I have focused on paint, plastic, marble. Now I’m coming back slowly, in a softer and more classy manner. I love shoes but I think the British one are too heavy. I have wanted to recreate the same volume, the same male style of a lightweight lace-up.
Last but not least the denim. I always like to use it. I propose again also the scratched/used concept: simple, masculine, a little bit heritage.
FY! – So, which the most used materials?
PC – Leather, denim, suede, the scratched leather with which last winter we did an experiment by playing with tone-on-tone black but that has been now made more summery thanks to the alternation with the white. The leather is scratched with a sort of iron tool designed to create the final effect… Of course, I will carry out the same idea in the next season.
FY! – Voilà … The next season! Have you already some idea? Will there be a common thread with the previous collections?
PC – No ideas yet. There is a kind of leather I have used for the women’s collection that I’d like to propose for men, maybe using it to create sneakers.
FY! – At the start you’ve alluded to the camu print that, in small doses, we can see here and there in the Collection. Maybe riding a little bit the trend of the moment, why have you chosen to use it?
PC – For me it is a classic, even though I know that we have seen it a lot in recent years. It’s always there, it is the only really masculine print. You can wear patterns with butterflies or even patchy but the camouflage remains the only really masculine one, with its history and its evolution … I always like to include it.
FY! – Dear Patrick, just another question… Any projects for the future, in parallel with the Geox new capsule creation?
PC – I’m trying to set up my men line for the next season. I have already prepared the offer, I just need to refine the details.
FY! – To some extent we had already mentioned it in the previous interview ..
PC – Yes, we had already talked about. I thought it was easier than it is. You have to arrange everything in the best way possible, but I am determined to do it, it is a great desire.
FY! – So we’ll wait for your collection, too…
PC – Yes! I’m not afraid, the only thing scaring me is the change that this industry has suffered in recent years but I am serene. I have a lot of fans who have been following me for over twenty-five years, who have decreed my success as a designer and who are waiting for me to come back.
Thanks a lot!
