Northampton Shoe Museum

A few months ago I went on an expedition with two classmates and one of my shoe design teachers to Northampton. It's one of the last places in England with a working shoe factory that we could see in action. Of course I didn't take any photos within the actual factory, but I did manage to get a few snapshots at the shoe museum...

Despite being very dark, I got a couple snaps of some amazing shoes. Check out this fantastic fetish boot print on these incredibly mod boots.

A few vintage foot binding shoes. Look how ornately embroidered these things are. I guess when you can afford to be ornate when you're dealing with such tiny things.

On the other hand, these brogued shoes for bound feet are surprisingly simple and modern looking.

Gotta love the crazy cantilever heel on this shoe. I am counting on someone to help me balance a one of my shoe designs in a very similar way. So sexy and weird.

If Dorothy wanted to be a little more practical about walking all the way to the emerald city, she might have considered these. But the clear Docs with the baby picture? I have no idea...

How fabulous are these vintage silk uppers? Can you imagine wearing boots like this every day? I would relish it.

Vivienne Westwood's famous platforms. Not the blue ones, but the exact same model. What I love about this shoe is the delicate shape of the toe, the curve of the platform and the unobtrusive colour.

Spice Spice Baby! (sorry)

Sorry for the blurry photo. This one was particularly dark. But it was too awesome not to share. Wish her ass was a little more shapely though, don't you think? I found this section of the museum the most interesting because it had a few examples of the evolution of fetish shoes. How mundane this heels looks to us, and yet at the time, it was an incredibly high heel in SHINY black leather. How provocative!

Some very mod spurs. I love these.

And if you thought I was tall before... The extreme high heel is taken to a new level (see what I did there?) with this pair. The logical part of me keeps thinking "you might want a closed toe with a back if you want to balance in those." Of course, I imagine they would never be worn by anyone standing.

                              Try walking in them. I dare you! I love the choice of colours in this one. Bright 70s yellow and ruddy orange. Nothing says sex and fetish like mustard yellow, you know?

How awesome are these Pete Murphy shoes? I love this sort of print, especially on leather.

FABULOUS boots. If I recall correctly, the black design was patent and appliqued onto the soft white leather.

And last, but not least, some metallic snakeskin 70s platforms. Again, I apologize for how dark the museum was. In order to protect the shoes they hired blind lighting designers.

The Best Decision I've Ever Made

The other day I read over the blog entries I wrote during my year at CSM and I have come to a very solid conclusion: the best decision I've ever made was to leave that awful place.

It's evident from my entries that I repeatedly tried to rise to the challenges set by Evil Tutor, and was constantly knocked down without any explanation as to why. I can see how bravely I tried to take each failure as a reason to try even harder. And I can see how fucking miserable I was. It sorta killed me; it sorta made me stronger. I am still trying to sort my head out after a year of constant mindfucks.

But every time someone complements my shoe designs, or asks me to consult with them on a costume or project I feel a little bit better. It's good to know that although I've lost all confidence in my abilities, others have not. A little external reassurance is exactly what I need right now.

18+, Or My Visit to The Armory

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Hello New People

I see that *SOMEONE* has sent a number of you over here looking for interesting stuff. Hello to you all!

Stick around for a minute or two. I'm in the process of writing a bit about my visit to The Armory where I took those photos our dear Mr. Ellis posted.

For now, feel free to say hi and introduce yourselves.



-Agent Redhead

Hello Again, San Francisco. And How Are You?

I can barely see what I am typing for the sunlight shining through the window. I am obviously not in London as I type this. I am in fact sitting in one of my old haunts in San Francisco watching the weather change from sunny to rainy and back again.

I've been back for nearly two weeks. I don't know how time is passing so quickly. I avoided coming back to SF for nearly nine months. After the CSM debacle I had to take some time to flail and run in circles. I suppose I felt intimidated by the caliber of friend I have in SF. Everyone I know is doing something- usually something noteworthy. I admit it was a self-centered impulse, but I didn't want to come back having failed out of a world class school without something interesting to show for it. My friends wouldn't have judged me or even cared of course, but I would have found ways to sense judgment where it wasn't. This summer was a really shitty time for me and I needed the time to sort my shit out. And I did, through shoes.



I was chatting with my friend Kitty the other day and I found myself saying, "you pick 'your thing' and you do it and do it and do it until people start to take notice." That is what I need to do. Make design my thing and just do it. And do it. And do it. And find people who want to work with/for me to help me do it. I am re-inspired to take a look over my shoe design sketches and think about investing some time and money into prototyping.

Yesterday I tromped around Isotope Comics in reflective silver boots and drank gin and tonics with lovely people. The store owner and local supervillain James talked me up to his customers and friends as though I were a celebrity. Like I said on Twitter the other day (do you follow me on twitter?) "Sometimes you feel like you're with the band. Sometimes you are the band. And sometimes you haven't even heard of the band and everyone laughs at you." James is one of those rare people who can't help but make everyone feel like they are in the band.

So here I am, back in San Francisco, missing London, but feeling like I never left this city. Of course I did leave. And I will be leaving again on the 25th and returning to England, which currently looks like this:


(thanks to Mr Ellis for the picture)

Though for now, I'm just going to enjoy my bitter coffee, served to me by a bitter barista, in a dirty cafe full of surly people.


And now I leave you with a photo I took in Chinatown.

A Bit of Bragging

A few funny things about my life:

I've had three Christmases. One on the 25th with my aunt and uncle and cousins and extended family in Cambridge. On boxing day I ended up having dinner with Terry Bedford, who shot Monty Python and the Holy Grail. We all talked about vintage comics, shoe design, film, and the future of advertising. Terry and his wife are absolutely lovely people with amazing taste in art.

The second Christmas was on the 30th with my mom and her boyfriend and it was chill and filled with cookies. The third Christmas was on the 1st with my boyfriend and his daughter, and was filled with Legos and silliness.

Three Christmases! I must be making up for all those years I didn't celebrate at all.


Our new years eve plans involved going to a party with a space theme. The Boy and I had to come up with costumes other than my silver space girl outfit. So, I did a quick google images search for "space girl" and guess what showed up on page one?



It seems that photo I took with James Courtney has made the rounds. I've been approached by many people who want to buy prints, and been recognized as the silver space girl on more than one occasion. Of course this is all well and good, but I was a bit put out because yaknow, I already own that outfit and I was looking for NEW inspiration. ;) (Oh and if enough of you go bug James about that photo, he will start selling prints or postcards at Wicked Grounds.... so go bug him!)

And speaking of Wicked Grounds, it seems a that post cards featuring this photo (also by James Courtney) have been on the shelf and selling out:



If you want a photo of the naked American Redhead then go buy some before they all sell out.


And now I must crawl into bed and attempt to ward off this plague I brought with me to the new world. *cough *hack *death