NEWS

Aaron Rose On DC Shoes’ Artist Project

The latest installment of the DC Shoes Artist Projects series is with cultural curator and collaborator Aaron Rose. Rose is famous for his various art shows, his magazine, ANP quarterly, the famous Alleged Gallery, and the Beautiful Losers movie, premiering throughout August. We caught up with Aaron to talk about the design of the new shoe, out now…

Interview by Bradley Carbone

Complex: What was the process behind doing the Artist Project shoe with DC?

Aaron Rose: Well the problem with most “art shoes” is that they’re totally un-wearable. And I’m like, “I’m going to make a shoe that people want to wear.” So I would go back and forth with the guys at DC on prototypes and I would bring them out with me and show them to everybody and be like, “Would you wear this? What could we change to make this more wearable?” So it wasn’t about how arty we could get with the shoe, this project was more about making the coolest shoe out there, you know?

Complex: It has a pretty simple aesthetic to it but then the sole design is interesting.

Aaron Rose: The sole was based on Teardrops. Teenage Teardrops is a record label that my friend Cali runs, and then also 96 Tears is a scooter club that I’m in. They’re kind of a take-off on the Clarks Desert Boot, which is a very mod shoe, but Clarks hasn’t made a low-top Desert Boot since the 70’s. So it’s a reinterpretation of a shoe that hasn’t been made in 40 years.

Complex: What’s the mod tie in?

Aaron Rose: I’m really into scooters. I collect Vespas and Lambrettas, and we have a scooter club called 96 tears, so it made sense to put teardrops. Originally we were going to try to fit “96 Tear Drops” on the sole, but that became logistically difficult.

Complex: What kind of details are involved with the shoe?

Aaron Rose: There is a little zigzag stitch on the shoe. DC is a corporate company and everything is made in a factory but that’s sort of an homage to handmade stuff. It’s not just like a random design element. I don’t know if we succeeded in making that clear, but it looks cool. And it’s loose enough so if someone doesn’t like it they can just cut it off.

Complex: You did a custom box for this project as well, right?

Aaron Rose:Yeah, that’s one of my paintings. I worked with this designer named Keith Scharwath, who also did the Beautiful Losers poster and also does all the posters for my band. I basically did paintings of each of the panels and then Keith went in to make the box look like it had been sitting around for years and years. It gives it this vintage sort of quality to it.

Complex: So, did you know Damon Way before you started the project or how did that come about?

Aaron Rose: I’ve known Damon for quite a few years. He collects a lot of art, and he’s been supportive of the artists that I work with. So I met him actually through Phil Frost almost 10 years ago. But we never collaborated, he was just somebody I knew. And we would just nerd-out on art together.

Complex: Interesting…

Aaron Rose: DC was doing art shoes way before any one else. And he was like, “The art shoe thing is kind of over,” and he was talking about doing shoes with more cultural facilitators. He wants to work with music producers and curators and people who are not just artists, but who are kind of like culture leaders.

There’s also a ‘zine that comes in the box that I got—like, I put in all this tips, all these D.I.Y. art tips, like how to steal paint, how to steal billboards, like there’s 10 different tricks I’ve learned over the years, of like how to get stuff for free. And then Barry McGee did a page and KAWS did a page and Mike Mills did a page, so all these different friends and collaborators that I’ve worked with over the years all did a page for the ‘zine that comes inside the box with the shoes.

DC x Aaron Rose Artist Project, $150, dcshoes.com

For more on Rose check out our extended interview with him in our August/September issue, on newsstands now.