Designer Spencer Phipps has fashion’s most eccentric self-isolation workout—an at-home climbing wall in his Paris apartment.
With the rapid escalation of the COVID-19 outbreak over the past weeks, a scroll through your Instagram feed has become an unlikely window into the homes of those you follow—whether TikTok videos by celebrities dancing in their kitchens, or friends posting mirror selfies of their latest work-from-home fits.
Another more unusual byproduct has been witnessing the masses take their workout routines online, from live-streamed yoga sessions to communal dance classes. Just when I was beginning to find all these home workout posts a little smug, a video popped up on my Instagram feed posted by Spencer Phipps, the mastermind behind menswear label. In it, Phipps swings across an at-home climbing wall wearing nothing but shorts and a bandana around his head, while the jangling guitar and fiddle of John Denver’s “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” plays in the background. It’s certainly not a self-isolation workout for the faint of heart. “It was actually a little Christmas present to myself,” Phipps says over the phone from his Paris apartment, where he had just finished a quick session on the wall before lunch. “The idea came about during another disruptive situation, after the strikes in December. I used to train probably four or five days a week, going to the climbing gym every morning, but starting a business means things get crazy, so I didn't have the same schedule. Then the strikes basically shut everything down, and all of the places I like to climb are outside of Paris. I had this weird room in my apartment, so I just thought, I'll build it here.” With the help of a friend who was visiting Paris from the Pyrenees, he set to work—in a fortuitous stroke of timing, he finished the setup just weeks ago. While he still likes to travel to the forests outside of Paris for more ambitious climbs, Phipps describes his at-home apparatus as an important part of his training. “It's not the most interesting climbing, but it's more a place for me to do pull-ups and just keep myself active.” He compares the need to keep the body conditioned for climbing as similar to that of a highly-trained musician—lose a few days of practice, and you’ll notice an instant dip in your abilities. “It's your fingers, you lose your strength. Out of all sports I've ever done, climbing is the one that, the minute you stop, you really lose all of it. You can still pick up a football and kind of have a go for the rest of your life, but if you stop climbing regularly, then it just goes away.”Phipps has never made any secret of his love for the great outdoors. The San Francisco-born designer grew up in the Bay Area, where he’d go skiing in the winter and hiking around Lake Tahoe in the summer; but despite living near a rock-climbing hotspot for much of his youth, it’s a passion he only discovered in New York, while working as a menswear designer for Marc Jacobs in his mid-twenties. His remarkably active lifestyle is reflected in his designs—practical, roomy cuts and technical fabrics honed by Phipps himself wearing them on his outdoor jaunts, or graphics paying tribute to subcultures that celebrate Mother Earth, from hippies to hikers—and the label’s emphasis on ethical production. All of his garments are manufactured in Portugal, a country that is a global leader in sustainable business practices in fashion, using eco-conscious textiles. With the current pandemic meaning many fashion studios have disbanded to work from home, I’m curious to know how he’s faring in these unprecedented circumstances. “I could be much worse off,” says Phipps. “We were fortunate enough to be organized earlier in the season, so the collection is with the factories already, it's just a matter of getting the fabrics ready to go, and little things like that, which are coming. I'm definitely concerned about the industry and the future of the business—we're not some kind of megabrand with an infinite amount of money to float us through this. I'm not all doom and gloom, though—I think we're lucky to be in a fairly good spot.” His advice to those in a less fortunate situation is equally thoughtful. “I would say it's a good time to really reflect and look at yourself, and your company. Now is a moment where you have the time to shift things online and really start building conversations with your community, and establishing a different dialogue. Maybe it isn't the season to start that whole new collection of accessories you were thinking of, but you can focus on what you're good at, and what people want from you. I think there are a lot of positive opportunities that can arise from this.” Perhaps one of those positive opportunities could even be taking a leaf out of Phipps’s book and embracing the rock climbing life.
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