Every summer, Copenhagen Fashion Week comes around, attracting fashion’s glitterati to discover the new and the now emerging from the Danish fashion capital. Serving as the perfect backdrop for a new collection that’s sure to be in your closets soon, Danish footwear giant ECCO has teamed up once more with Italian creative collective and design agency RAL7000STUDIO for a second, limited-edition collection for the Autumn/Winter 2024 season.

With a celebration that served as part of the official CPHFW schedule, the Danish footwear house and the creatives behind the Milan-based studio prepared to present their sophomore collection of re-envisioned takes from a selection of ECCO’s iconic styles, including the ECCO COZMO sandal, ECCO OFFROAD boots, and ECCO STREET ACE boots and shoes. During an intimate breakfast, catered by renowned Danish chef Frederik Bille Brahe at the ECCO Brand Studio located in the heart of Copenhagen, a visual celebration of archival history with displays of classic footwear models from ECCO’s factory in Tønder paired alongside the house’s latest releases was on full display, demonstrating a nod to heritage with a wink at the future for ECCO.

With a panel talk that included the RAL7000STUDIO founders led by Vogue Business Senior Trends Editor, Lucy Maguire, select guests were invited to join in on a “Hackathon” to customize all-white leather versions of the ECCO COZMO sandal and ECCO STREET ACE shoes, using natural dyes, waxes, and oils, as a lively dinner and drinks gathering concluded the festivities.

To learn more about the collection, V chatted with Marco Simonetti and Michael Cutini of RAL7000STUDIO to discuss how the partnership with ECCO came to be and why they’ve returned for a second round with the footwear giant.

V Magazine: When you first got asked to partner with ECCO for the first time a few seasons ago, what was your reaction? What did you think when you saw that email?

Marco Simonetti: We knew the brand, as it was in the past, and that was the image we had [in mind.] So we got the opportunity to actually see the company [and how it’s run] nowadays, and it was something incredible for us [to see] because we had never been there before and we really liked the approach [of what they are doing now]. It’s something completely unique from a big brand like this. We had a lot of fun being there and really appreciated their approach. Right after that, I think we naturally came to the idea of doing something together. We didn’t know what to do at first, and then Panos [Mytaros], the CEO of ECCO, came up with the idea of setting up this [collaborative] relationship.

Michael Cutini: It came through as an email, saying “It’s time.”

V: Love that!

MS: The approach was really unique, as they wanted to relaunch and rebrand, everything. [We felt] it’s the right time to do that, so if they trust us as a studio, and they believe in us, that it’s an opportunity to do something.

V: Where is RAL7000STUDIO based?

MS: We’re based in Milan. We have two studios, one in Milan where we handle all the creative parts, and the other one is in the center of Italy in a well-known region where there’s a huge footwear district, so that’s where we have all of the prototyping, factories, suppliers, etc.

V: Where does the name RAL7000STUDIO come from?

MS: Basically we got the first studio space and we completely rebuilt the space and we picked all the colors for RAL7000STUDIO’s color scheme, which is all grays from the Pantone [color family], so you go from RAL7000 to 7099 which are shades are gray to almost black.

V: How did you guys start working together?

MS: We met in 2018, and we worked on a project together internally and [shortly after that] then we said “Okay, let’s set up something new together.” So we set up RAL7000STUDIO in 2020 and built it step by step, and that’s how we came up with the idea. We’re not only into footwear anymore. We are also expanding our services towards other categories.

MC: And now we are growing really fast. Right now we have 10 people [on our creative team], and all with different skill sets from 3-D design, to graphic design, technicians, patternmakers, etc.

V: For this second drop, what was the inspiration that went into the creative?

MC: For this one, we tried to create a figurative representation of the contrast between RAL7000STUDIO and ECCO, a merging of natural and city landscapes, inspired by more industrial details. Also, ECCO is a family business that is surrounded by nature, and that inspired us on this concept to bring together skating [culture] from the city with the outdoors. Some of the pieces look like a shoe within a shoe. That was the concept behind utility mixed with street style.

V: ECCO is known for its innovative leather use and I think as an Italian studio, you guys know that some of the best leather comes from regions as such Florence and whatnot. I think it’s interesting that you wanted to explore a new relationship with a Danish brand like ECCO.

MS: You know, even with Italian or French tanneries, it’s hard to experiment that much. They’re very old school, narrow-minded. So there is beauty to that on one side, but it’s super interesting that [ECCO] is willing to experiment with leathers. There was a first phase where we based everything on the product design. But now we are also experimenting with new materials. We believe that once we set up the design language, we have to also to push new aesthetics with new and exclusive materials.

MC: Since we are not actually a brand, and 95% of what we do is consulting and collaborating with already established brands, for us, the difference in this project is the fact that we’re [given] a big chance to become a brand in the future.