FILLING PIECES

The philosophy of versatile design with Guillaume Philibert

Guillaume Philibert’s design philosophy is purpose-driven: like every part of a 911 has to make sense and contribute to the whole, so does the apparel he makes with Filling Pieces, his Amsterdam-based streetwear atelier. The name of the brand is a phrase for wardrobe staples that tie other clothes together, the important essentials that make other clothes make sense. The everyday, made instantly recognisable.

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato had a concept that there was an ultimate version of all things, a platonic form. We recognise dogs as dogs because there is an inherent dog-ness to them, stemming from the ultimate dog. That might not be true but in design terms, there’s another word for it: iconic. When something is the specific, recognisable form of itself you can pick up what it is from just a few details. A few abstract lines of form, maybe a shadow. You can draw a picture of it, in your mind, if not on paper, from just hearing the word.

In 2009, Guillaume started his brand with a single mission: he wanted a sneaker that was exactly right. Nothing being sold met his standards, so he designed the first run of the Low Top, had 50 pairs made and started selling them from his parents’ garage. He’s still selling them in hundreds of stores across the world in 2022.

“The outline of the shoe has not changed in the last 12 years and probably won't change in the next 12 years,” he explains during a blisteringly early call before he gets to the office one morning. “Of course, we made the shoe better; we added a new sole to make the structure better, a ripple on the bottom for more grip, updated some minor things, just like the 911 over the decades. I don't want to upset any purists by comparing our shoe, which is only 12 years old, to a decades-old car but that was the ethos of how I designed the first shoe”.

Philibert approaches Filling Pieces and business with a deeply thoughtful approach, interweaving his curated design ethos and his hopes to express his heritage; “My parents are from Suriname, which used to be a Dutch colony. That's why a lot of Surinamese people come to the Netherlands, same as my parents. With the immigrant experience, being a child of immigrants, I did feel that this was another layer or something that is very important to the brand, to make a change, to be a reference for kids that look like myself, and that don't have people that look like them.”

"The outline of the shoe has not changed in the last 12 years and probably won't change in the next 12 years"

Philibert trained as an architect, maybe that’s the source of his careful, constructive approach of his brand and forging links between different mediums. Bridging the gap, he says, applies not just to single subjects, but spans across culture; “We feel that the brand was born out of bridging the gap between high fashion, which was obviously created for the elites, and black culture fuelled streetwear. We felt like these two segments, they never really merged. People worked their way or styles together, but it was made for very different people. So we felt that the brand could be a platform, or at least a bridge between different people.”

"Why make a pair of shoes that you can only wear to a gala? It needs to be multi-functional and used in different ways, I think that is what iconic design is."

“There's a lot of similarities between car design and car culture and fashion,” Guillaume continues, “And that's why you see so many collaborations going on - with, you know, people like Aimé Leon Dore doing a collaboration with Porsche. This is something that we try to make people understand, that bridging the gap means we're making fashion but that doesn't necessarily mean that we have to just do fashion. We can do collaborations and bring people together and also different industries.”

Finding how to merge worlds is key to understanding Philibert’s philosophy; “That's why my love for the 911 is so big because it's so much the DNA of the brand. If you look at the materials, the performance - it's a car you can take on track and also drive to the grocery store. It’s everyday in the most extreme way,” he says. “You can dress it up or down, use it for different occasions. I think that's needed in design. Why make a pair of shoes that you can only wear to a gala? It needs to be multi-functional and used in different ways, I think that is what iconic design is.” Philibert is a devotee: to cars, to fashion, to design. His meticulously-designed sneaker, in his beloved car, is the perfect representation of that.

As a final question I ask him how he’d like to be seen. We loop back to reference points, of design like a roadmap to an ultimate form; “I would like to be an inspiration for people that see the shoot or see me, that it’s possible to start something out of fashion with a small budget from your bedroom. I think if you're driven, if you like design and if you're focused, then with patience you can get somewhere. I'm definitely not where I want to be yet, but hopefully I could be an inspiration for people that are going to look at this piece or read this article and say ‘hey, he once had something that he liked and a dream, and if he can do it, I can too’.” For someone being profiled, he demurs being the focus; “It's not about me, it's more about being a reference and inspiration more than anything.”