It was my friend Zara Odu, founder of Designers Consociate who alerted me to my love of mules a few years ago, “Z, you’re always wearing mules, I know they’re on trend right now but you’ve been wearing them even beforehand”. It got me thinking, and I begun to analyse my sole dependence on mules as shoes for almost every event.
Pretty early on in, in my late teens, I understood the shape of my feet, the position of my natural arch in relation to the type of heels that gave me comfort, and pretty much steered clear of anything uncomfortable. I also understood my feet in relation to my body, the size of my ankles in relation to the shape of my legs, and chose shoes as a conclusive answer to all these factors. Aesthetically, my favourite type of shoes were what I referred to as ‘naked shoes’; sexy, strappy, not much leather, 2, 3, or 4” high and showing off as much of my foot as possible.
And although the pairing of handbags with shoes seems like the most natural, I have always been shy of venturing into creating shoes, for the huge responsibility of fit, and ergonomics involved; preferring instead to go back to school, sometime in the future, to learn the science of shoe making.
However, my curious mind has gotten the better of me once again. Noticing that I am drawn to very specific kinds of shoes that no one seems to make in the exact way I wanted, I begun to create shoes for myself only, becoming increasingly obsessed with the process, opening up shoes to see its inner workings, researching local material, understanding local constraints, and respecting the handmade process.
My foray into our range of mules is a natural progression of this long and sometimes arduous process. Thus it is with pleasure that we present a 3 piece collection of 1.5” high mules working with exciting skins such as hand dyed and polished Ayers snake skin in turquoise and orange, Natural Raffia and cotton, and sustainably farmed Rabbit Fur.
Love Zainab x