photo by Meghan Petersen
Style Idol: Ce Ce Chin
Issue #24
The designer’s Eight Twenty line of sneakers is for girls tired of wearing their brother’s kicks
By Marisa Meltzer
Published: September 1st, 2005 | 1:50pm
“I like the big, iconic brands,” Ce Ce Chin admits. She’s discussing the Balenciaga bag, which she predicts is already played out. “But a good handbag is a worthy investment.” A potential splurge makes sense when you factor in that much of her wardrobe is either from thrift stores — she swears by the Value Village in Ann Arbor, Michigan — or traded from other indie designers.
According to those of us who suffer from a cruel addiction to shoes, Chin, a 32-year-old New Yorker, has an absolute dream job: She’s a shoe designer. But cast aside any notions of teetering Manolos or Vegasy Jimmy Choos — Chin’s shoes are strictly for the kind of girls who take the subway, not for taxi-hailing Carrie Bradshaws. “It’s sexier to wear sneakers and be mobile,” she laughs. “[And] it’s important to be comfortable.”
Her shoe line, Eighty Twenty (the name comes from the idea that you wear 20% of your wardrobe 80% of the time), began with a failed attempt to find the perfect pair of sneakers. Now her hand-painted canvas sneakers are in shops across the country. The styles are vaguely influenced by Vans and Converse but look much more girlie with heart prints, pointed toes, or ribbons threaded through the eyelets. “I was the type of girl who went out with skateboarders,” she says, recalling her Vision Streetwear-tainted teen years. “I make shoes for girls who listened to Black Sabbath and smoked pot out of the attic window.”
As for her personal style, on the day of this interview, she’s wearing her own shoes, a black pair of high-tops that reveal pink stripes when you turn them down. She’s also wearing a vintage violet silk top with a little shrunken thrift-store cardigan in kelly green. Her skirt is a kind of DIY kilt made of old jeans she sewed together with a safety pin to secure everything into place.
Chin travels to Hong Kong and China twice a year to oversee production and to get some inspiration. She shows a pair of motorcycle pants made from denim she bought on her last trip to Hong Kong that she likes to wear with a Diane von Furstenberg slipdress. She’s starting to see the differences between Asian and American styles. Chin says Chinese tend to wear much more color, and New Yorkers seem really conservative in the cut and silhouette of their clothes.
Her latest obsession is the movie Flashdance. Not so much the shoulder-baring sweaters, but the romantic notion of a girl living alone in a loft being both tomboyish and sexy. “I love the image of Jennifer Beals riding her bike, wearing sneakers and an army jacket,” Chin says. “It’s all about that ability to go back and forth.”
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Check out Chin’s designs at eightytwentynyc.com.
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