Fashion is not only a certain set of silhouettes, skirt lengths, sleeve shapes, shoes, bags and hats chosen in a certain way. Fashion is also interesting because it has hidden symbols that are understandable only to a certain group of people – if you want, a stratum. United by belonging to a secret society (hello to Dan Brown and James Bond in Spectrum) they recognize each other by rings, passwords and tattoos. And only knowledgeable people are not surprised at the high cost of cashmere from The Row, wear jewelry like jewelry, and can identify in an unremarkable (in the sense, “without rhinestones”) bag-bag the always appropriate Bottega Veneta, in the “grandfather’s” felt hat – the perfect Maison Michel, and in worn-out sneakers – Italian Golden Goose Deluxe Brand.
To be honest, I wanted to talk about them for a long time, and in the context of the fact that just a couple of days ago there was news that Golden Goose released sneakers in honor of David Bowie (as a continuation of the exhibition of photographs of the legendary British musician in the Milan flagship of the brand) – a story with collaborations not new in fashion, but given how popular Bowie was, I’ll assume that we won’t find these sneakers in the afternoon with fire – whoever needs it, take note.
The Golden Goose Deluxe Brand was created in Venice in 2000 by young designers and part-time married couple Alessandro Gallo and Francesca Rinaldo. Both Alessandro and Francesca are self-taught designers – they create collections the way it feels, and not “the way it should be”, because they simply did not go through all the stages of studying the development of the fashion industry, as happens in fashion schools. The first things they were helped to sew by a familiar tailor, who was quite famous in tailoring traditional men’s suits. For the couple, “made in Italy” was very important – it turns out that not all Italian manufacturers are allowed to write this cherished phrase for customers around the world on the tags; they wanted to create things of the highest quality – in fact, wearing the Golden Goose noticed how attentive the manufacturer is to the smallest details.
DNA – as it is fashionable to say now – of a brand is a mix of elegance, style and modernity in things for every day. The designer couple bet on making people who bought items from their collections feel special. Perhaps that is why the brand has positioned itself exclusively in the high fashion segment.
The high cost of their shoes (however, in addition to shoes, they also produce casual clothes, however, as for me, their shoes turn out better – just because wedge sneakers are always Isabel Marant, and aged sneakers are only Golden Goose) is due to the fact that they are “aged” by hand, so theoretically each pair is unique.
The first collection, consisting of clothes for both women and men, appeared already in 2001. Alessandro and Francesca decided to independently finance the tailoring of the collection, which they sold through familiar showrooms (in fact, the same model is now typical for novice Ukrainian designers). This allowed them to learn from their own mistakes, constantly improve quality, control production and, if desired, contact customers.
The most important stage in the development of the brand was 2004, when Golden Goose rethought the classic cowboy boots, releasing them immediately worn down – then the word “distressed” was not yet as cherished as it is now. This helped the Italian company to enter the American market. Also in 2004, their model 750 sneakers came out.