Goggles in the Grotto: Palace x C.P. Company at Dover Street Market Paris
Images and Text By Max Mendel
Dover Street Market Paris recently hosted a capsule collaboration between Palace and C.P. Company, blending grit with precision in a refreshingly unpretentious way. Local skate crews rolled in from République, boards in hand, offering steady attention instead of spectacle. The Goggle Jacket, with its heavy structure and precision detailing, stole the show—absurd yet iconic, its lenses striking a perfect balance between sci-fi and street-ready. Set against the stone cavern walls of Event Space B1, the pop-up became a relic of subcultural ingenuity, merging South London’s irreverent skate DNA with Italian sportswear’s meticulous craftsmanship.
Campaign footage looped against exposed concrete walls, with skaters weaving through Mediterranean backdrops, setting a mood that was both laid-back and timeless—a subtle nod to C.P. Company’s Sicilian roots, reinforcing the collection’s quiet confidence. The pop-up wasn’t about spectacle but synergy. There was no forced reinvention, just a seamless exchange of ideas: Palace’s subversive energy met C.P.’s archive-driven innovation in a natural fusion. The result? A collection focused on evolution, not nostalgia.
C.P. Company’s legacy of pragmatic inventiveness—creating garments for football terraces, countercultural movements, and everyday resilience—shone through in the pairing of structured jackets with matching denim. The designs felt contemporary, simple, and purposeful. The collection played with texture and tone, from indigo two-tone colorways to jackets in heavy cotton/nylon blends, echoing both brands' commitment to technical fabrication. Overshirts in dense fabrics blurred the line between skate casual and uniform dressing, while earth tones and subtle ocular details gave the pieces a modern feel. Even the co-branded C.P. PALACE tag was understated—an acknowledgment, not a statement.
The scene reflected the collection’s effortless confidence. Familiar faces from the Paris menswear circuit mingled with République skaters, moving slowly, touching fabrics, and asking questions. There was no frenzy, just steady attention. The goggle element grounded the collaboration in something deeper than hype.
This wasn’t just another streetwear drop—it was a meeting of two forces, one bringing archival curiosity, the other motion. The result felt easy, unfussy, and perfectly attuned to where streetwear stands now: forward-thinking, yet with one foot purposefully in the past.
