The Contour of Luxury Summer 2019 | Page 210

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