“UGGs? In summer?!” you’re probably thinking. Given how readily the shearling boots conjure thoughts of warm, pillowy comfort for your toes, reservations towards a ‘summer UGG’ are excusable. But for their second collaboration with the Southern Californian shoemaker, a summer UGG is exactly what Eckhaus Latta have created and we love it.
It was first presented back in September as part of the bicoastal brand’s SS20 presentation, an easy collection of lace-trimmed dresses, generous, genderless tailoring and Mike and Zoe’s characteristically masterful textile manipulations and knits. The shoes they presented conveyed a complementary air of unpretentious, relaxed refinement. Think studded mules in chestnut leather, off-white cowhair and heeled shoelace sandals.
“Given that the traditional UGG is iconically an AW shoe we felt a lot more freedom in exploring what a summer UGG could be,” Mike Eckhaus tells us from his Brooklyn apartment, where he’s been spending lockdown with his boyfriend. “It is amazing that UGG has been so open throughout the process to truly allow us to be a part of their world in a very carte-blanche fashion,” he continues. “Both of us have a rather distinct viewpoint, but they really complement one another.”
Novel as the finished products may seem, they are, in fact, the result of the nuanced development of the design language established last season. “There were elements in the design from the first collection we wanted to carry forward such as the block-shaped square toe,” says Mike, which you’ll find on each of the capsule’s eight unisex styles.
The spirit of continuity also spills over into the collection’s campaign, shot by Zoe Ghertner. Where the images for the previous collaboration were set against the grandeur of California’s Mono Lake, here, they’re imbued with a sense of eerie tranquillity. In them, we see Frank Ayzenberg and Guinevere van Seenus — a model Mike and Zoe “have been dreaming of working with forever” — perched on a sunbleached pontoon on Lake Piru, just outside LA. “We sought to play with a greater depth of starkness and isolation in the American Landscape as a continuation of the first series of images,” says Mike, reflecting on the newfound relevance they’ve acquired in the time of social distancing. “The images are eerily timely given they were shot back in the beginning of December,” he says.
Though it still remains uncertain when you’ll be able to wear your pair out on the town, why not get some from lounging about the house for the time being? UGGs have always been the perfect indoor shoe, after all.
Eckhaus Latta x UGG SS20 is available to purchase here.
Credits
Photography Zoe Ghertner
Styling Avena Gallagher
Art Direction Eric Wrenn