You had an apprenticeship with
legendary bespoke shoemaker
Stefano Bemer. Was there a
particular creative concept to
shoemaking that you learned
working with Stefano Bemer that was
particularly instrumental in helping to
shape your shoe design success today,
and if so what is it?
Shoemaking
apprenticeships are not
what most people think.
It’s not a Hollywood
movie. I owe Stefano for giving
me the opportunity to spend time in
the shop and learn the art but I hardly
spent more than 5 hours with Stefano
in 10 months. In an apprentice you learn
by watching and doing, not asking a mil-
lion questions and getting answers. His
shoemakers were my real teachers. Ste-
fano ran the business and was the face.
Sure he did the shoe design and pattern
making but he had another workshop
where he worked, while the shoemakers
were in the bespoke workshop. So in
reality, my ability to learn was through
observation. That was always been a skill
of mine. I observe and learn. Then I do,
make mistakes and perfect through rep-
etition. I went on to learn shoe design
by simply drawing on my morning com-
mute from Brighton to London, making
really ugly drawings at first, erasing