International Women's Day | A Chat with our Founder

In celebration of International Women's Day we thought that it was the perfect opportunity to hear from our very own female founder! Like the shoes she designs, Emmy has a unique story to tell.

Emmy lets us in on what inspired her to start the company, her thoughts behind shoe designs and a few other ideas she has up her sleeve for the future!

What does international women's day mean to you?

So for me it's really important to have the opportunity and privilege to inspire young girls and women to pursue a creative career.

I found school quite difficult, I'm dyslexic. I knew I was clever and I understood all of the academic subjects, but when I got tested or did an essay, I didn't get very good marks which I found it really frustrating.  If I'd let that dictate my future or put boundaries in front of what I could achieve, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now. I was always really encouraged that I was good at art and that I was creative, so I pursued that path with confidence.  

Having twin teenage girls at senior school means I experience girls and young women not encouraged to pursue creative subjects as they are perceived as an unsafe career path. So for me, International Women’s Day is an opportunity to show that you can be successful and creative if you have confidence.

I love shoes, always have and always will.

My love of shoes was established from an early age.

I’m one of 4 so there were quite a lot of shoes in our house. New shoes were a bit of a rarity which must have fuelled my passion for shoes even more. I loved and cherished getting new shoes, the smell of them, the feel of them, the look of them – everything! So much so,  the first night of having them before I’d worn them I’d put them under my pillow! 

When I was about 7 years old I attempted to make my first pair of shoes. They were heavily inspired by my older sister’s Scholl sandals, they’re like clogs with a strap over the vamp, they were quite fashionable in the 70s and still going strong! But hers were sadly too big for me to borrow, so with my Dad’s help I made my own. They were super simple, just a strip of wood with elastic nailed to the sides, I thought they were amazing. But my Dad said:

“Whatever you do, don’t wear them to school!”

And I thought, 

“Ha, course I won’t!” whilst thinking, “what does he know, of course I’m going to!”

So I took them to school in my satchel and at playtime I put them on. When the teacher blew the whistle to line up to go back into class, the whole class including the teachers turned to look at me noisily clip clopping across the playground and laughed at my homemade shoes!

Needless to say, my first attempt at shoe making probably wasn’t the most fulfilling but that hasn’t stopped me!

Where do you start when it comes to knew inspiration for designs?

In normal times I travel quite a lot for work and I find that ideas come to me whilst I'm traveling, mostly because I'm somewhere new and inspiring. So for example I designed a whole collection based on Italian gates as I happened to go on holiday to the Italian lakes and there were loads of beautiful overgrown gardens with really beautiful gates!

But during the pandemic I obviously haven't had that opportunity. I guess the other part of getting inspiration while you're away is that you have a bit more headspace and distance from what's going on day to day. I think it's easier to clear your mind a bit, so I look forweard to travelling again the new ideas I may explore.

Interestingly my design inspiration never comes from shoes, I  very rarely look at other designer shoes. The source of most of my ideas come from really random things like doorways, tiling, chairs, cushions, insects, flowers, shells, more natural and architectural references. 

What was the first shoe that you designed and produced for Emmy London?

Weddings weren’t on my personal radar in my late twenties, but one of the reasons why I set up Emmy London and got interested in the bridal market was because my really good friend Lucy was getting married and she asked me to help her find shoes.

We went out for the day and really quickly just got really disheartened because we found nothing appropriate. Everything was either really frumpy or unwearable and I was just like:

“Where do you go if you go if you are really into shoes? And where do you go if you want to be just as excited about the shoes as you are about the dress?!”

What was out there felt like such a massive compromise on comfort, style, price - everything!

 I think in a business studies text book, it would say I had identified a gap in the market.

So I asked Lucy to really think and imagine what she wanted from her bridal shoes. I designed and made them for her as a wedding gift.  They were a little kitten heel, pointed slingback with sage green piping that matched her flowers.

 It wasn't a complicated shoe, but it was everything she wanted. It really made me understand the importance of having the right product and making it special for that person.

What other brands do you look up to in terms of style ideas?

I do really appreciate and admire Manolo Blahnik's very specific aesthetic, he very much sticks to what he knows and loves and there's no movement from that. 

I just think that's a really good way to evolve a brand. I also really admire his attention to detail and the craftsmanship of his shoes, for me they were a real bench mark of perfection.

I also really love a cashmere brand called 360 cashmere, based in LA, they do really beautiful shapes in gorgeous colours with a modern twist. The styling isn’t 'out there', so you can still build a classic wardrobe. I feel like it’s the equivalent of our shoe collection but in cashmere.