Laces Loose: Brajovic’s Shoelace-Strung Camper Store

Snapshot: Atelier Marko Brajovic fashions Melbourne’s Camper shop with layers of shoelace waves, curling and breaking off the ceiling of the store like bursts of water along a seashore.

The Spanish shoe store derives its influence from the land, a rustic sense of nature, and its name which in Catalan means “peasant or farmer.” Their admirable campaign, Camper Together, seeks to celebrate global cultures while maintaining sustainable design practices in its stores. How fitting, then, that the Melbourne shop is crafted by São Paulo- and Barcelona- based Atelier Marko Brajovic, whose aesthetic coheres between Brazilian folklore and nature-conscious minimalism.

Creative Director Marko Brajovic approached the project as “an immersive, sensitive and scenographic experience, where the visitors are the everyday actors.” The studio mapped out the movement of waves, using the natural phenomenon as a model. Imagine concentric circles, plotted out in the ripple effect of a disturbance to a still pool of water. Brajovic takes the raw model, the tests of waves and gives it texture, body, and a rich carnelian hue - all through the woven fibers of shoelaces. A worthy material - sure - to honor the subject of the store, but also a dazzling contrast to the white walls and chalk-gray flooring.

The experience is focused on you, the visitor, acting out a brief fantasy as the emotional vitality of the installation cascades down like the red samba costumes of Brazil’s notorious Carnival celebration. Then, plush-topped, mirrored cubes provide a pedestal for you - visitor - while panels rise up amidst the strings, appearing to continue the spectacle of shoes but revealing themselves as mirrors at second glance. The red too reminds of the velvet curtains of bygone theaters, with backlit shoes like expensive bottles at the bar, and light beaming sky and seaward from dark wall sconces. The Atelier is proud of their self-described “party spirit” where designs are drawn from the “chromatic intensity” and “traditional folkloric Brazilian festivities” of São Paulo. Surely, between the dramatic atmosphere and chromatic potency of the space, there is a unexpected experience for the shopper - isn’t that half the fun?

Photography: Oliver Cole