One Good Pair of Neutral Canvas Sneakers
Like the rest of the world, I've recently felt attracted to the Vans Authentic sneaker again. Not just in a trend-cycle sort of way, but more because, lately, everyone around me seems to be revisiting things they loved give-or-take a decade ago.
I noticed this spending the last two weeks back in my hometown of Paris: friends who once absolutely lived in their Jordans or Converse, and then briefly didn't, are now sporting them again. Never the exact same pair though, always with a little twist, in a different hue or some slightly oddball version. Pairs that said: I remember who I was, and I'd do it all again, but a little differently now.
Growing up, I knew the Vans Authentic as a skate shoe and admired it from a distance, my parents having operated under a strict Bensimon-only policy. So, maybe this is me lashing out, in true Gen Z fashion. Or maybe they're just a really good pair of $60 canvas sneakers after all. Either way, they felt long overdue. That and, you know, not having $700 to spare on Phoebe Philo's take, got me to make the purchase.
Color-wise, these particular Authentics sit somewhere between a butter yellow and a faded beige, framed by a blue border between canvas and sole. Nothing about them feels particularly remarkable, yet somehow, in their clean simplicity, they are. They're not starkly white, nor some statement shade or loud pattern. They're subdued but not boring.
What I like most is that there's a natural nostalgia to these Vans that doesn't feel forced, which is becoming increasingly rare these days. Because I'm kinda tired of fashion's obsession with manufactured memories: Every store's overflowing with $150 t-shirts designed to look older than they are — paint-splattered, sun-faded, faux-weathered, purposefully distressed. I wanted the opposite, something that wasn't pretending to have a story yet, but that I would lend a story to by wearing them in myself.
It made the conversation at checkout all the more amusing: The sales associate recommended a product designed to stop the canvas from yellowing over time. I told her I couldn't wait for them to yellow. The prospect of them ageing is part of the appeal.
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