Not I | Camper Edit

Appropriate appropriation

Apr 19, 2025

Welcome to the eleventh edition of Not I, a wordless series appearing every Friday or Saturday in which I share a curation of the pre-owned items currently on my personal favorites list. It’s style experimentation, deep-dive thrifting and instant fashion-universe-expansion all wrapped up into one browsable unit. Read more about the idea behind the series here.

Today: news from the non-existent Camper Appreciation Society, established to occasionally sing the praises of the Spanish footwear brand founded by Lorenzo Fluxa in Inca, Mallorca back in 1975. Camper is a big company: they’re present in 40 countries worldwide with more than 400 stores and sell over 4 million pairs of shoes every single year. Although not fast-fashion, they hardly qualify as an independent label. And why should they?

There’s definitely importance and value in committing to all things niche and independent. But it doesn’t make sense to push that to the point of snobbery. That’s a fine line, for sure, and walking it requires a significant amount of honest self-searching. A lot of people wonder how you can be anti-capitalist and enjoy fashion. While not easy, that question — a booming business in itself — may be less tricky than this uncomfortable one: What exactly is anti-capitalist about supporting niche and independent clothing brands? And, on top of that: What’s independent about too obediently following what independent thinkers think and independent makers make?

Whatever the answer, I feel there’s a certain power in thrifting a pair of gently worn Ludwig Reiter’s or Bally’s that’s simply not in buying those €1500 Comoli x Guidi boots that I reported on last Tuesday. If this is true, it suggests that having your own style — one that’s ego-less yet personal, defined yet open-ended — isn’t only about knowing the buzziest if-you-know-you-know brand. It’s also about combining it with well-chosen vintage pieces, as the The Archivists, La Nausee’s, and Sinots of this world realize all too well, and appropriate what some of the big brands are offering. And here I mean “appropriate” in the strictest dictionary sense of the word: “to take (something) for one’s own use, typically without the owner’s permission.” What does that mean? This, perhaps: when it comes to the big brands, whether it’s a Barbour, a Nike, or even a Uniqlo, always act as if you’re educating them rather than the other way around.

Camper is everywhere in Europe yet in America and Asia they’re almost as non-existent as its Appreciation Society. The overall quality is pretty solid, they’ve some good silhouettes, especially when you’re into the current bowling shoe craze, and some of their collaborations are first-rate. Last but not least, on the second-hand market it’s almost impossible not to hit upon an absolute steal.

Camper x Kiko Kostadinov — ‘Teix Boots’