Aries Arise x Porter

22.02.2020 | Blog | BY:

“Japanese – Italian – Luxury” is how the Aries team sums up their most recent collaboration with Japanese fashion house Porter. But the collection is a little more subversive than such a description would suggest – as ever with Aries Arise’s approach, there’s a sense of playfulness too. 

“I wanted to include a trompe l’oeil design that would be a reference to classic luxury bags, this is how the gold chains idea developed. I specifically wanted the straps to be an ironic take on a handbag, to contrast the very utilitarian language of the Porter bag design.” explains Sofia Prantera of the approach to the collection. “Trying to achieve a balance between utilitarian and luxury is central to my design process and it creates constant tension between these opposing tenets.”

Shot by Clare Shilland, the campaign for Aries x Porter project taps into the new energy that accessories are bringing to style. They’re a material in themselves, building full looks from the outside in. For Prantera, the collaboration had personal roots. “Porter bags are unique, I have been buying their bags since my first trip to Japan in 2003. My first Porter bag was an iPod classic 1st Generation 5GB holder. Our Japanese distributor came up with the idea of collaborating on a bag collection which seemed like a dream come true. Porter bags are really iconic and unique. Porter have invented their own bag language and in some ways they are still pretty undiscovered outside of Japan.”

The collection is comprised of five unique styles, mixing original Porter silhouettes with an Aries twist. I particularly like the Helmet bag, which is Porter’s signature shape, but I think the construction and materials lend themselves really well to small accessories so we added a 5th design, based on a 1990’s raver holster. This style is new and unique to our collaboration.”

Aries Arise x Porter is available to buy now.

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