Louis Gabriel Nouchi Takes a Stab At Puma's Archive

Murder was on Louis Gabriel Nouchi’s mind for S/S 25. Sharp-shouldered black suiting (good for disguising gorey splatters), sleek leather pants, tops, and dresses (in blood-red), and stark white sets (presumably worn post-murder) were inspired by Patrick Süskind’s Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. At the show, the designer’s collaboration with Puma also made its debut: spikey rubberized shoes that are surely comfy — and easily cleaned.

The designer explored sex, violence, and intimacy through texture in the show, raised jacquards recalling bloodsplatter and dirty, waxy denim was provocatively dangerous. And, of course, the carnal leather. ‘I’ve always been obsessed with leather. It’s a sensual material. It’s alive, there’s so much depth and you can have it forever,’ Nouchi told SHOWstudio in 2024. Made solely with greasy-seeming rubber, these shoes are yet another example of Nouchi’s obsession with material, and his expertise in manipulating it.

Nouchi transformed the sportswear brand’s 1999 Mostro sneaker, turning it into a streamlined slip-on that comes in white and black. ‘I synthesized the essence of the iconic Mostro shoes into a radical mule design using a single material, transforming it into both a design object and a comfortable sneaker,’ he explained. Named after the Italian word for monster and inspired by ‘60s sprinting spikes and ‘80s surfing shoes, the style echoes Nouchi’s own penchant for storytelling.

Launching on 23 January on louisgabrielnouchi.com, the shoes arrive one day after the designer’s A/W 25 menswear show. With American Psycho and A Single Man as past runway reference points, who knows what sordid and splendid things Nouchi’s cooked up for this season?