Achilles Ion Gabriel

I can’t say it’s my favourite part of the job, but it’s not the worst either.

I am quite sensitive to lighting and when I first walked into this space it looked like a 90s office, all black and white and very gloomy. I needed to bring an atmosphere to it, to create a space where I really wanted to work so I changed everything, added shelves and even designed these tiles that were produced by Huguet, a Mallorcan company. I guess the redesign of the space was also a good way to give the brand a new face because buyers and press often come here to see the new collections.

Yes, the headquarters are based in Mallorca. It’s a very nice place but very corporate, where over 200 people work every day. At first, it was quite cool for me to work there because I was never used to working in a normal office. But now I have a new workspace across from the headquarters campus, so I don’t go there as often. I need some quiet space and time to concentrate. 

I grew up in Lapland in a fake graveyard where my mother was a tombstone designer. I saw people crying every day, so I can say that my childhood was quite morbid. My grandmother was also a designer and we also had many painters in the family. Everyone around me was creative in their own way. For my mother it was crucial that I got a real job not like the rest of the family, she wanted me to have a more steady job. When I told her that I had enrolled in a technical school to become a shoe designer, she was afraid she’d have to provide for me…  but I thought otherwise. I didn’t know any shoe designers, so I thought brands might need people who specialized in making shoes.

Yes (laugh)! I’ve never met him though… but still! Studying shoes turned out to be much more technical than creative. In fact, it’s like studying engineering and few people end up becoming designers or creative directors, because if the design isn’t very clear in their head, no one can guide them. 

I stayed in Finland for a year but soon it seemed too small and I decided to move to Paris. I started hanging out here and of course, I realised that I needed money. It’s hard to find even a basic job without speaking French. I was doing some modeling, but I wasn’t very involved. That’s when I decided to start my first business, with my credit card as the only funding for the brand. I was lucky, from the very first season it worked out very well and the first people to enter the showroom were people from LN-CC!

Achilles Ion Gabriel! It worked out great, even though I had no idea how to manage a fashion business. For instance, I realised I needed a showroom. I literally sent drawings to buyers because I had no pictures.

 I was surprised by how easy it was, even though I know I was lucky, of course.

If you are not lucky, you won’t succeed, but if you don’t have the talent, you often won’t succeed either. It’s a gamble. At least up to a certain point. Then you have to be more strategic, of course. After launching my brand I started doing a lot of consulting jobs for big brands like Marni or Courrèges. I got really busy with the consulting and as it pays very well I thought that I should close my brand and focus just on that. Because back then I didn’t really know how to manage a business on a professional level, I closed my brand to take the pressure off of running a business alone. But of course, after a few years, I started to miss it and I started another brand called “Ion”. Something much simpler that, once again, was successful.

One day I got a call from Camper saying that they were in Paris and wanted to meet. I thought they were on a business trip here, but I later learned that they came all the way only to meet me. I was very busy at that time and I gave them a coffee-break slot. Over the meeting, I learned in detail what Camper was. I had the impression that they wanted to collaborate with me, but it wasn’t clear to what extent or what form it would take. A few days later I received a call asking me to come and visit the headquarters in Mallorca. They showed me around the offices, the archives, and after a 6-hour visit, they asked me if I wanted to take the creative director role. In my head I thought “yes”, but of course, I tried to play it cool and pretended I had to think about it. That’s how it all started.

I was asked to start with CAMPERLAB, but they soon after asked me to take over Camper main. Even before the first CAMPERLAB collection was released. I guess I already had proven with what I had done with CAMPERLAB that I could achieve a great job and they decided to give me the whole package.

For CAMPERLAB I can work around my own process, I build the collection as I want. It’s really nice as a designer to have that kind of freedom. Camper’s main line is, of course, much larger, with teams, so the work has to be more structured to pay attention to all the details.  The process is much more commercial and I like that too: it’s a very different way of working and having both is very satisfying. We sell a lot of carryover styles that were Camper basics so when I came in I needed to have a clear vision of what I could do moving forward. I wanted to bring new ideas and not stick to the past. But then why change styles that already work? So, I really pushed to bring in new ideas and edited the collections to add new designs and as the new creations work great, I started to get a lot more freedom. 

 Although I travel a lot, I live in the middle of nowhere and I don’t really see people there. I have to say it’s especially when I attend fashion weeks and I can see people wearing CAMPERLAB shoes, that I understand “Ah okay, Camper is in!”. And it is of course very rewarding.

Actually, yes. It makes sense for CAMPERLAB to be 100% unisex. Our shoes are neither classic men’s shoes nor stilettos, which would be difficult to develop for both genders and expect a commercial success. Of course, both flat shoes and stilettos can be worn by all genders but there is not enough demand to unlock an all size production budget. In an ideal world, I think everything should be for everyone, but there is also the commercial reality of it all: a brand, no matter how big, cannot afford to waste money and resources. It’s true that there is a growing demand for men’s heels, but it’s not yet comparable to the demand for women.

The team is huge and it is not always easy to communicate. When I change something, they do need to process it but as a brand Camper was always very forward-looking, especially our CEO. He was the one who advised us to take Kobarah for men when I didn’t even know it was a possibility for us.

Most of the time, I tend to rather embrace what it takes to get to a more sustainable design but some materials are very difficult to replace, like patent leather for instance.  That said, we’ve worked really well in that department. The Tossu sneakers we launch last Fall are quite ground-breaking in terms of manufacture. It is a zero waste, 100% recyclable shoe. And then we are launching new sneakers this Summer and even if they do not look natural at all, they were actually constructed almost entirely with natural materials. like mushroom leather. Parts were also made with 3D-print recycled polyester.

The choice of materials is still limited, which explains the lack of aesthetics that many brands suffer. I am also not in favour of banning materials like leather especially for products like shoes. Leather is still one of the strongest materials and durability is one of the most important elements of sustainability: it’s always better if a product lasts. Having to buy five pairs instead of one is definitely not sustainable. When we have that debate about whether or not we should use animal products, I answer that the best criterion is the lifespan of the product. And for that, it is always better to use leather. 

Footwear design is very different from garment design. It is quite challenging to design durable shoes from materials that are new to the market. Shoes are made of almost 25 components that have to be strong enough to keep the shape intact, even if we walk on them every day. It’s not easy to find 25 sustainable and well-sourced components. It takes a good team and a lot of dedication to do it. 

Materials are being developed and I am constantly discovering new initiatives. For example a laboratory can now grow animal skin to make it into leather. I’m looking forward to using it even if it is still very expensive. Some materials such as mushroom leather, can be a good substitute for animal leather and are becoming more and more suitable yet it could benefit from a stronger and more durable composition.

It depends on the products. Some are produced in Spain, some in Portugal and we also have a more technologically advanced factory in Vietnam. I haven’t had time to visit the one in Vietnam but I hear it is fantastic. These people are working in the future. I have visited many factories in my career and some of them are very outdated, even in Europe. EU regulations are not always fully observed. That is why I like to make sure that we only work with the best factories and as a BCorp company all our factories are regularly checked.

I’ve got some. I think it can be very useful but I don’t think it’s a must. It depends on the profile and if the person is comfortable with being seen on social media, it can certainly be a great asset. Every time I post a picture of CAMPERLAB, I get a lot of messages and it helps with sales. But from my side, it’s not calculated and sometimes I’m sure people in the company roll their eyes because I post what inspires me or what comes to my mind so it can look quite chaotic but it’s just spontaneous.