C'est Chic, C'est Crocs

When I heard about the unusual collaboration between Christopher Kane and Crocs, I was somehow dazed yet not completely confused by the Scottish designer's choice. The pairing can arguably be described as astonishing, as Crocs are universally considered pas chic. Consequently, I asked some of my friends who work in the fashion industry to describe the two brands in one word. I wasn't shocked by their strong opinions about Crocs, which they referred to as medical, ugly, comfortable and useless. Whereas the Christopher Kane brand was described as innovative, daring, creative, opinionated and determined.

Image Credit: Getty

Birkenstock recently became more fashionable and popular thanks to brands such as Celine. Following this, Kane attempted to do something even more audacious and daring. As guests were getting ready to see the Christopher Kane Spring/Summer 2017 collection, which debuted during London Fashion Week in late September, they were surprised to discover that the brand had collaborated with Crocs. For many years, the American brand has suffered from a severely negative reputation from the fashion industry. They are commonly referred to as ugly, even hideous. However, Kane altered the typical Crocs shoe into a new one. He created marble prints in different colors and embellished them with rough mineral stones. The makeover was a success. Moreover, the designer expressed his sentiments about the shoe brand by stating that it is a daily shoe to wear along with down to earth, non-fancy clothes. With this "earthy" concept, Christopher Kane opted to concretely enhance this inspiration through the extremely popular prints and stones.

Image Credit: Getty

Truth be told, the most influential brands and designers often manage to establish the it trends for each season where the stylists, editors and the media always seem to respect it and don't typically express negative opinions. Moreover, fashion is all about thinking outside the box, surprising the audience by being excessively creative and offering innovative, non-cliché, unexpected ideas. Showing a collection that's beautiful, wearable, yet unique is a monumental challenge in positioning the brand's reputation and image. Indeed, many brands and designers are provocative in their choice of inspirations such as John Galliano, Maison Martin Margiela, Alexander McQueen, Viktor & Rolf and more. Their ultimate goal is to prove to the audience what they are capable of in terms of creativity and savoir-faire in order to be remembered and appreciated for being different than the rest. Christopher Kane succeeded in doing so as he didn't go into a "safe" direction. It is also the reason why the media split into two clans concerning this collaboration: the ones who support the collaboration, and the ones who find it ironically and hilariously horrifying.

While Suzy Menkes shared her confusion about the collaboration in this Instagram post, other editors evoked their rather negatively strong feelings, by stating that Christopher Kane has taken it "too far."

Image credit: Suzy Menkes Vogue Instagram

Many fashion news outlets expressed their astonishment:

Translation: Christopher Kane dared to display Crocs in a fashion show. Image credit: Huffington Post

Image credit: Vogue

Image credit: The Independent

According to Vogue, their readers were also confused, as 70 percent said they would never wear the American brand, Crocs, and merely 10 percent admitted they would only with Christopher Kane's makeover signature.

Two weeks after the big revelation, everyone is still talking about it as the Scottish designer is still defending this collaboration. In fact, he claimed that he wanted to enlarge his target audience and reach out to the ones who appreciate and wear Crocs as he doesn't desire for his brand to deemed as snobbish. Furthermore, he revealed in an interview with Women's Wear Daily: "I don’t really care what anyone thinks. I don’t think anyone’s got the right to say right or wrong, unless they’re God, otherwise just shut up." While we might think that this an opportunity for the American brand to expand despite their financial struggles, Kane also stated that they don't need him to become more successful.

Will the industry follow Christopher Kane’s fashion statement? Will Crocs be the must have shoes next season? Time and fashion will tell.