puma x mihara aw11, and nostalgia

I used to be a great fan of Puma when it started collaborating with McQueen, Neil Barrett and Miharayasuhiro. Such collaborations continue until today but only 2 lines retained, but of course there is a new line, Urban Mobility by Hussein Chayalan emerging llike 3 seasons ago, and it seems doing quite well. Another defunct line would be Sergio Rossi line.

I find it a pity that Neil Barrett 96 hours ended years ago. Could it be due to poor sales? No doubt Neil Barrett designed very nice Puma shoes, but the prices were very steep. I believe the most consumed ones, the Mihara and McQueen lines,  survive until today because they are the 'fittest' - Mihara being the cheapest while McQ the most valued?  However I personally feel that the 2 lines are already getting jaded.

Similar to SS11 collection, Puma x Mihara AW11 does not really wow me, but I believe there are still some interesting pieces to find. ( same for the McQueen line, which I will write about in the next post).

During the years (mid 2000s) when Puma x designer series were not so available in Singapore, and even the official Puma stores carried none, there was this shop called Venue that brought in a wide range of Puma x designer series and it made me indulgent for quite some time. Venue was then the new kid on the block in the fashion scene of Singapore. Its huge collections of luxurious Puma designer shoes and Raf Simons merchandises earned itself many magazine spreads and a reputation in the desert-like Singapore's fashion landscape. I was then a very frequent Venue customer too. Once it got 2 branches in Singapore and Thailand (if I am not wrong), then later, a mobile store called VBox that would relocate itself along Singapore's Orchard Road periodically. Pitifully, Venue is now defunct.

images adapted from
zozo.jp and pumatalk forum