Forget Trails: Collina Strada’s Keens Are for Frolicking
Indie fashion darling Collina Strada and the environmentally-sound outdoor footwear brand KEEN share a sense of eco-friendliness. As such, their latest maximalist footwear collaboration makes a lot of sense.
Designer Hillary Taymour re-tools the Targhee and Jasper Rocks shoes with that distinctly Collina twist on climbing. The Targhee hiking boot gets a 19th-century treatment with a black satin finish on the KEEN-proper camo printed upper, with a side-zip closure inspired by Victorian boots and a removable handcrafted flower appliqué on the toe. The Jasper Rocks sneakers are also satin, available in both a seashell pink plaid and an all-black colorway, with a more frou-frou detachable flower done in a matching satin with a bit of lace for texture.
Each shoe is made of 100% recycled linings and vegan materials, an earth-conscious ethos shared between both Taymour and KEEN. The carbon footprint isn’t small by any means, but it definitely could be greater, so. Good green effort.
Collina Strada is on a generational tear with the collaborations this year, among a collaboration with Converse earlier this year and a furniture collection with Layered, featuring a plaid patterned interiors textile that resembles the seashell pink colorway of the Jasper Rocks sneaker. All of these collaborations speak to a known strategy for indie brands, which is to scale up both visibility and sales-wise by collaborating with a more established brand with its own specialized consumer base, like Converse.
Where this methodology can become a maxim for indie brands like Collina Strada, the collaboration with KEEN extends into the brand’s very own identity. The Collina Strada universe thrives on contrast: maximalism and eco-conscious, urban and outdoorsy, punk and feminine. Now, there are two pairs of shoes that at least attempt to put their money where their mouth is.
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