Rem D Koolhas and United Nude: High on shoes

Rem D Koolhaas with the Loop Hi Disco. The celebrated Dutch footwear designer visited the Philippines recently, way ahead of the anticipated opening of a United Nude store in the country. Rem D Koolhaas, founder and creative director of the footwear brand United Nude, is easily one of the most intriguing figures to visit Manila this year. Not to be confused with his namesake and uncle, the legendary Dutch starchitect, Koolhaas has carved a name for himself in the international design scene.

His shoes benefit from his architectural background of experimenting with gravity, construction and proportion. All these qualities, plus comfort and beauty, are what make United Nude a covetable item in any fashionable Filipino’s wardrobe.

Thorns by Iris van Herpen and United Nude. Anticipating a September opening for the brand’s first concept store in the country, Koolhaas recently offered a glimpse of his shoe designs at the Newport Mall at Resorts World Manila. On display were the iconic Möbius, an astonishing shoe with a single band forming the sole, heel and footbed; the Lo Res, a revolutionary digital design with a smooth rubber surface, removable strap and leather footbed;

The Fold Hi, a slip-on ankle bootie with high heels made of two different elastic materials; the Loop Hi Disco, a minimalist heel; the Eamz Raiko, a slip-on sandal; the Zink Slingback Hi, a dressy heel with a stable core; and the Rockit Sandal, a metallic-finished heel with harp angles and geometric, edgy style.

The store will also carry bags, watches, sunglasses and wallets for men and women.

Koolhaas started the brand in 2003 with Galahad Clark, a seventh-generation member of the shoe-making family that founded Clarks. “It was first called Nu, which stood more for ‘now’ because I’m Dutch, ‘naked’ in French and ‘woman’ in Chinese. But we couldn’t get the trademark clearance for the brand,” Koolhaas explained. “We didn’t want to risk the potential trademark issues that we could face. We turned it around, it became UN. Then we came up with United Nude, which stands for ‘working together in a transparent and open way.’”

Nova Rose Gold by Zaha Hadid and United Nude. The Philippines is a first-time market for the brand. “Our Asia sales manager meets people and he met someone interested to represent United Nude in this market. We find what he think is a suitable business partner that can expand our business in the correct way and we open stores in many countries. So, we’re expanding carefully but with conviction,” Koolhaas said. “I’m always optimistic. Otherwise I wouldn’t be an entrepreneur or I wouldn’t be in business. You have to be naive and optimistic.”

When he started his company, Koolhaas didn’t just break the rules of conventional shoe-making, but he also had his heart broken. He poured his energy into his creative process, thus giving rise to the Möbius.

But is there a shoe that you’ve created out of love? “I didn’t create a shoe immediately for my wife [a statuesque Chinese from Guangdong, where the brand has a factory]. It took me a while but she did have the perfect feet and the perfect shoe size as well,” Koolhaas, who was wearing a Geo Wing Bo pair during the interview, said. “Most shoe companies have a sample size of 37. And United Nude has a sample size of 38 and that originates from the broken-heart story. The Möbius in a 38 was the ultimate size and my wife has the perfect fit for that first Cinderella shoe. I did create the Cosmo for her, but we don’t make it anymore. It was a carbon fiber heel.

UN is celebrating its 15th year. “We did something special in Japan. Personally I don’t believe in birthdays. I don’t see that as a milestone to be honest. I’m glad that we survived but I don’t see age as a milestone but I see a product accomplishment or a collaboration or a store opening as a milestone.

United Nude x Lady Gaga, 2012. “On one hand, I never thought we were gonna pull it off. On the other hand, I’m annoyed that we’re not bigger yet. It’s a combination of that. We went through a lot of storms — the crisis in Europe, the decline of the euro. Or Brexit. There’s a lot of things that affect your business. The sanctions on Russia and the ruble,” he said.

On counterfeits. “We do fight counterfeits actively with a legal team. But it’s also a form of flattery. You’re nobody until somebody copies you. It’s hard to tell its impact on sales.

We’re not a crazy expensive brand. It’s difficult to copy. And if you really can’t afford it, maybe you should buy a counterfeit [chuckling], at least it’s better than [buying another brand]. I wish there weren’t counterfeits but I’m also flattered.”

On 3-D printing. “It’s something we use primarily for prototyping. We did some projects where we used 3-D printing as a limited-edition collaboration-type of manufacturing. We do it for one-offs. Let’s say we design for a celebrity, we do 3-D printing because it’s the quickest and most cost-effective way to create a one-off. It’s not practical for mass production. And never will be I think.

On Galahad Clark. “He’s more of an adviser at the moment. Not involved in a day-to-day basis. He has his own footwear company, Vivo Barefoot, almost like an anti-shoe. It’s a shoe with a very thin outsole and a larger toe box for almost having like a barefoot -type of experience. He’s very active, a marathon runner who runs with no shoes. He’s not very interested anymore in fashion and design. He’s more into sports, nature. He’s the type of guy who’d jump into cold water and swim for miles. We’re also good friends. We hang out.”

United Nude’s Mobius Hi Navy. The collaborations. Koolhaas has attracted an impressive array of world-class collaborators such as Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen, Japanese legend Issey Miyake, pop diva Laga Gaga and the late great starchitect Zaha Hadid.

Van Herpen is his most frequent collaborator, having shod her Paris Fashion Week shows for successive seasons, enabling the innovative designer to be an official guest of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. One stupefying shoe is the “Thorn,” for her autumn/winter 2012 couture collection called “Hybrid Holism.”

“We 3D-printed the entire shoe in several parts. The outer part was the reproduced by vacuum casting in a polyurethane rubber, while hand-cut natural stones (labradorite, tiger’s eye, leopard jasper and moss agate) were inserted under the heel. The inner construction of the shoe was vacuum-casted out of resin and fiberglass. Around 16 pairs or so were ever made,” Koolhaas explained in an Instagram post (@rem_un).

Also in 2012, he crafted a shoe for Mother Monster: “We were invited to make a shoe for Lady Gaga’s new Fame perfume launch. Since we are fans, we thought

Rise by Issey Miyake and United Nude. we’d give it a try.

They wanted the shoes to be as high as possible, so that’s what they got (over 12 inches!).

We came up with a few concepts, one of which was inspired by her own Fame campaign where she’s a naked giant and people are climbing on her. In the case of the shoes, we went for climbing gold men, and yes they are nude, United Nude.”

The autumn/winter 2018 Paris shows was the fifth collaboration between United Nude and Miyake with the “cool and comfortable” Flux men’s sneakers. For spring/summer 2018, also shown in Paris, the women wore Rise, “a high-mid heel with a strong geometric cantilevered heel, which stands at 75 millimeters being one of the most comfortable height for contemporary heels. With three adjustable straps, this exciting sporty-looking sandal provides a universal fit.

Hadid, who incidentally studied under and later worked for the elder Koolhaas, is a collaborator the younger Koolhaas sorely misses as the British-Iraqi architect has died in 2016. They only designed one shoe together: “The United Nude Nova was launched exactly five years ago at L’eclaireur in Paris during the haute couture fashion week. Three individual colors were made at a limited edition quantity of 100 pairs each. These works of art originally went for 2,000 USD per pair and are now going for 5,000, which in my opinion is still not bad for such an immaculate collectible pair of sculptures,” he said on his IG. The shoe is made of chromed vinyl upper, leather lining, rubber outsole, and carbon fiber wedge and heel.

Will you collaborate with other artists anytime soon? “That’s very hard to say. I really go with the flow. A collaboration needs to be a match coming from both ways. With Miyake, they were looking for somebody and we were looking for somebody in Japan. I would love to collaborate with somebody in the US. Thinking of stylists actually. We’re in LA now and there’s a great stylist culture who dress all these celebrities. There’s incredible creativity among stylists. So, even in any local market, say the Philippines, I would also be interested to collaborate with stylists even in limited-edition materializations or variations on existing products which are very easy to do and fun to do. Stylists are the incredible influencers nowadays and it’s not just because of how the system works but because they really have a lot to contribute. If you look at what a good stylist can do with very little things, they’re very creative people in general, they’re fast. They look for solutions.”

We have a thriving shoe industry, maybe you’d want to consider manufacturing here?

“Yeah, sure. I mean, we do have pretty high standards that’s why we work with the Taiwanese in Guangdong. But I’m pretty sure there must be Taiwanese shoe factories here?

Maybe there are local shoe factories that have accomplished the same levels. It’s very well possible.”