RAINE MAGAZINE Volume 21 | Fashion & Style

Photo and MUA by Helene Jaspers; Shoes the “The BOW” by Peter Popps; Model+Outfit both Yusura Entertainer
At the age of 18, Peter Popps started out as one of many sales
people, before he became an assistent and then soon after
a store manager for a fashionable shoeshop. He did this all
while studying architecture before really breaking into the shoe
industry where he found his love for avant-garde and young
fashion.
With 24 years of experience as a professional shoe
designer, Peter Popps created his namesake label of innovative
shoes after being tapped for many years, helping to shape
the brands of other well-known shoe designers. “I have never
felt a strong urge,” states Popps; to design opposed to the
mainstream cultural values as they are forced on us today.
In 2003 he started his own freelance design studio
by approaching companies that he had connections with
throughout his career. Immediately his creations were a success
and more work came to him from shoe brands that wanted
exclusive collections based on his unconventional vision. His
method of design has always been to make something unique
and different as compared to the everyday mundane. Popp’s
love for the creative process lies somewhere between fantasy
and reality - a place without boundaries.
Popps’ current works are inspired by a fascination for
creative freedom and architectural sensibility intertwined with a
sense of novelty, innovation and revolution. His creative genius
has always gravitated towards the development that comes
from rebellion, liberty and to show that world that anything is
possible when you believe in your own ideas.
Peter Popps takes a moment to share his viewpoint with Raine
Magazine.
POPPS: I was done with what the market offers to the
customers. Its all looks pretty much the same. A copy from a
copy from a copy and an outrageous price compared to the
quality. People are always ready for novelty and innovation.
There is this quote by Diane Vreeland, in which she
said:
….“Give ‘em what they
never knew they wanted.”
That has always been my method of designing, even
back when I started working for the 1st company in the 80’s.
You feel that people around you desire certain things, and there
are also certain things that you desire yourself, and from those
desires you create and search for something new which is an
answer to those feelings.
I love to create for the woman who knows how and
when to wear my designs.
I adore the feminine power that comes from a woman
who is in charge of her vulnerability in a different way than most
people know or who’s confident in beautiful heels when she
uses the street as her daily catwalk.
Popps’ artistic creations are influenced by avantgarde,
60’s space-age, comics and Sci-Fi. They are wearable
mostly un-walkable pieces that look deeply into the life of
the emancipated woman. His work closely identifies with the
struggle, freedom and revolution and begs to answer the
question, “What could we possibly wear in the future?”
The answer he found in this quote by Barbarella, in which she
said: ...” Just a moment I’ll
slip something on”...
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