ISAMAYA and Nike Are Dropping the Ultimate Shoe for Beauty Lovers
We speak to makeup royalty Isamaya Ffrench to find out more.
The worlds of beauty and sport are intersecting more than ever before, thanks in part to this year’s Olympics, plus the rise of sporting talents featuring in beauty campaigns. According to make-up artist and founder Isamaya Ffrench, “[beauty] speaks to everybody because it’s more affordable than fashion, for example, and it has the same sense of community that sport does.”
It’s partly for that reason that the lauded beauty mogul has teamed up with Nike, launching a brand new iteration of the coveted Air Max Dn silhouette. Drawing inspiration from the color palette of ISAMAYA signatures, the new collection of kicks features two subtle colorways: “Nude” and “Deep Brown.” Available for purchase on December 20, the cool and comfy shoes seemingly mark a shift towards more beauty-inspired sportswear — something we must admit, we’re more than open to…
Ahead of the shoe’s release, we speak to Ffrench about the growing relationship between beauty and sport, her creative process and the future of Nike x ISAMAYA.
Read on for the full interview.
Tell us a bit about your new Nike collaboration, how did it come about?
I’ve been a Nike partner for years and when they approached me two years ago to collaborate on trainers and direct a campaign, I immediately said yes, as I love the idea of intersecting the worlds of sport and beauty.
The collaboration lands in two core colorways inspired by the shades found in your makeup products. What made you choose these two?
Nothing says beauty to me more like lipstick, so I did a deep dive into lipstick research to get to the essence of classics, which to me are red, nude and deep brown. Then we translated those Pantones into the two colorways that are going to be sold worldwide, beige and brown, and we made a special edition red because it’s such a bold statement.
Who would you say these shoes are made for?
Absolutely everybody. Beige and brown are universal in beauty, and I’d like to think they are also universal in footwear. They’re very wearable, cool, and a bit unusual.
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In the last year or so, it seems that sport, fashion and beauty have worked more in tandem than ever before. What do you think has brought the worlds of beauty and sport closer together?
The rise of social media has put beauty on everyone’s phones. It speaks to everybody because it’s more affordable than fashion, for example. And it has the same sense of community that sport does. The social amplification that the Olympics benefitted from last summer also played a role, as did people like Imani and Skye, who starred in the campaign, in promoting the importance of feeling beautiful and confident when performing incredible challenges with their bodies in front of the whole world.
What’s your relationship with sports like?
There’s not a day I don’t go for a walk or hop on a bike. I do reformer classes and hardcore yoga several times a week. My brain can’t function if I don’t move, this is what takes my mind off things, I’m not a stay-at-home kind of person to relax.
Finally, how do you see the relationship between Nike and ISAMAYA evolving in the future?
What’s really great about this collaboration for me is the opportunity to reach a completely different audience on such a wide scale. I hope we can keep merging both worlds in a truly universal and elevated way.
