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Clarks has launched a new campaign called “Clarks and Tokyo,” oriented around a documentary exploring the streetwear of Ura-Harajuku, an influential style district home to the Urahara kei fashion movement.
In addition to the film exploring Clarks’ role in Ura-Harajuku culture, Clarks Originals is dropping a Harujuku Shoe Pack inspired by Clarks’ historic connection to Tokyo. The footwear company’s archival styles, including the Wallabee, Desert Boot and Desert Trek, were popular amongst the fashionable youth of Harajuku.
The drop includes men’s and women’s collections featuring leopard print, crocodile print and camouflage print shoes.
An official Clarks press release explains that the Wallabee shoes in the new collection “come primed with subtle nods to the youth district’s signatures: beaded laces, leopard print pony hair and fob adornments, all adding further innovation to an old-school canvas. Elsewhere, the pack features scaled-up platform soles, camo-canvas panelling offset with classic mocc-stitch piping – plus, snake- or croc-effect leathers. Naturally, the microsuede remains constant.”
Clarks further explains its latest project: “‘Clarks and Tokyo’ delves deep into the archives, calling on the voices and faces that live and breathe Ura-Harajuku culture – such as writers, independent store directors, and Urahara diehards – to lay out the seminal role Clarks and its core silhouettes played in the birth of the scene and pinpointing the cultural milestones that made each Clarks design a hit. The designs in question? The Wallabee, primed with its glove-like fit; the Desert Boot, a 1950s-born, smooth-toe essential; and the Desert Trek, renowned for its distinctive central seam.”
Watch the documentary, which spans five decades and features multiple generations, below.
In other Clarks news, the brand announced a collaboration with “Stranger Things,” releasing a children’s collection and a subsequent adult collection, the latter of which is offered exclusively at Journey’s.
