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Interview with Mathieu Missiaen

I stumbled upon the art of Mathieu Missiaen when I was searching for custom shoes on Etsy and I was immediately hooked. His intricate and vibrant designs epitomize urban art, and his unique style POPS off the medium. His brand NDEUR (pronounced “under”) boasts custom creations and drawings on t-shirts, vintage women’s heels and flats, his and her sneakers, walls, and anything canvas. NDEUR has been featured in numerous magazines, such as BUST (Canada), Strut (Canada), Style (Berlin), XLR8R (Los Angeles), TAAM (Israel), and Le Magazine (Russia) and on television at MuchMusic and MTV France.

Mathieu took a few moments out of his busy schedule to answer some of my questions. Check it out below:

I’ve read that classical 17th century paintings are one of your main influences, any artists in particular?

Definitely Caravaggio and Rubens. Girodet and all the great painters who have a passion for light. For contemporary, I would have to say Rustin, Velickovich, Lucian Freud and many, many more…

What do you think of the urban art explosion of the past few years and how has it affected you as an artist?

I think it’s great. There has been a lot of innovation and the artists are definitely creating more and multi-tasking, which is terrific because I love every medium and every surface. I think it’s important for me to always mix a lot of different influences, new and old. For my latest shoes, I created the exterior with really modern shapes and for the inside I used patterns inspired by Antic Rome, Havana tiles, and Japanese styles.

What’s coming up for the NDEUR brand?

New products are coming really soon (socks, belts, etc). Also look out for a collaboration with Reno Helena, who works on amazing scarves. For summertime, I’ve got a new t-shirt series and will also be doing some design for Citizen Records (Teenage Bad Girl, Vitalic, Missil, etc).

Where can people find NDEUR?

Contact us at ndeurpress@gmail.com to locate an NDEUR seller in your country or check us out online at www.ndeurshoes.etsy.com.

NDEUR’s website
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