Gucci collaborator Coco Capitán launches Charles & Keith capsule collection

The artist’s signature handwritten prose features on a pair of loafers and mini tote bag

Artist Coco Capitan’s capsule collection with Charles & Keith (Charles & Keith)

Photographer and artist Coco Capitán, who is best known for her collaborations with Gucci, has released her own shoe and bag capsule collection with Singaporean shoe brand Charles & Keith.

The Spanish-born artist’s works have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the world, including in Seoul’s Daelim Museum and Paris’s Maison Européenne de la Photographie.

She has collaborated a number of times with Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele.

Her hand-written aphorisms featured prominently in the Italian luxury fashion house’s Autumn/Winter 2017 collection, with phrases such as “Common sense is not that common” or “What are we going to do with all this future” appearing on Gucci bags, logo T-shirts and hoodies.

Her new collaboration with the predominantly Asia-based retailer Charles & Keith comes in the form of black penny loafers embroidered with her handwritten prose and tiny blue flowers.

Charles & Keith X Coco Capitan penny loafers (Charles & Keith)

The capsule collection also includes a black mini tote bag, which features a short tale stitched onto one side of the bag, and the same blue flowers stitched on the other side.

Script on one side of the loafers reads: “Loves Me Blue, Love Me Blue Not.”

Meanwhile, the script on the bag reads: “The hope that carries a blue flower growing and cracking the concrete, watered with rain in a corner nobody steps.”

Capitán said that her art “is inspired by overheard conversations, diary entries, and sudden waves of introspection”.

“I believe that words can transcend cultures and give us a glimmer of hope for brighter times,” she added.

(Charles & Keith)

She has also previously shot campaigns for other fashion giants, including Paco Rabanne, A.P.C., Mulberry, Miu Miu and Maison Margiela.

In 2020, Capitán held a solo exhibition titled “Naïvy” at London’s Maximillian William Gallery.

Speaking to British Vogue at the time ahead of her exhibition, the artist opened up about working with Michele over the years.

“Alessandro’s universe has a lot to do with mine and I love his mind,” she said.

“We are two very nostalgic people who, through fashion, romanticise the past and what could have been, but also bring in the possibilities of the future. It’s at once baroque, but completely new.”

“I can’t speak for Alessandro, but I find it difficult to live in the present. I’m always thinking about what has been,” she continued.

“Living in the moment is very on trend right now with all this talk of mindfulness, but I’m very far from that and, while I’m not proud of it, I think this way of thinking really shapes my work.”

Fredie Stevens, design director of Charles & Keith, said that Capitán’s capsule collection “reflects her cool-girl attitude”.

“These pieces, paired with her poignant prose, are perfect collector’s items for art lovers and the fashion-forward crowd.”