adidas by Raf Simons layers past, present, and future to create a new footwear range inspired by the painting technique of Tromp-l’oeil. French for “deceive the eye” Tromp-l’oeil gives a 3D realism to 2D surfaces through the use of perspective. In Simon’s Spring/Summer 2019 Collection, he employs the optical illusion in order to access and repurpose the icons of adidas’ history.

To begin, the designer curated styles from the adidas Originals archive: the Micropacer, LA Trainer, and the Torsion Conquest Super. These pieces were photographed and 3D modeled to fit the RS Stan Smith, one of the adidas by Raf Simons collaboration’s most essential styles. The resulting footwear retains the details of the vintage shoes, including stains, creasing, exposed glue, cracked soles, and other general wear-transporting authentic elements of the past into the now.

Raf Simons adidas Stan Smith Tromp-l’oeil Release Date

On Thursday, January 17th during Mens Fashion Week, three styles of the RS Stan featuring this concept will pre-launch exclusively at Tom Greyhound, ahead of the full collection’s global release in April.