Collective Creativity in the Furla Candy Cool Tour

Those who know me well, know that I have a huge collection of bags and purses, more notably Furla bags and purses. The Italian design brand appeals to me because of its innovative designs, by mixing classic shapes and materials with unusual materials, or by mismatching different materials and textures into a coherent and fresh new look. But I also like their more classic models which are timeless and elegant. Topping the Furla models charts for the past few years is the Candy Bag. (read my previous blog post about the candy bag here)

Earlier this week, my favourite brand launched the Candy Cool Tour. The Candy Cool Tour is a talent scouting initiative featuring the Candy Bag top handle bag. The Italian company is introducing a collective creativity project, or crowd sourcing project as you may also call it,  involving the most interesting young talents in the world to reinterpret the iconic bag. The project is developed with the creation of mini creative teams and through different stages: the first stop was Japan, and will be followed by Hong Kong, China and Korea, America and Europe. Each team will pass the results of their creativity to the next team, thus sparking new ideas and gradually creating a collection of Candy Bags that are entirely unique and unpredictable, expressing local cultures.

This new and exciting adventure plays to the trends we are seeing: Customizing things and crowdsourcing. Furla believes that creativity is combining things that have never been blended before. That’s what makes things edgy. It’s about trying something new and different.

In the final stage the baton is passed to Furla’s designers who, on the base of the Candy bags created, will develop an exclusive Limited Edition which will be presented at Milan Fashion Week in February 2014.

The first creative team is based in Tokyo, Japan. It is composed by: the nailist and illustrator Nagisa Tsukushima, the food designer Rotary Parker, creator of tiny cookies that transform into jewelry, and the Nishijin Textile centre, specializing in kimono silk. Filling the role of team leader is trendsetter and blogger Misha Janette, who, along with Sayumi Gunji – creative director of Vogue Girl Japan, collaborated in selecting the most interesting creative minds on the Japanese scene. Watch the video:

Furla – Candycool Tokyo from Collateral WEB on Vimeo.