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I would prefer<br />
that my favorite<br />
pair of 5 inch heels<br />
were comfortable.<br />
They aren’t,<br />
but I wear them<br />
anyway.<br />
You can make a pair of shoes by hand, but it<br />
requires an extensive array of materials and<br />
a lot of equipment. For almost everyone,<br />
the equipment is prohibitively expensive, so<br />
the shoes need to be made by a footwear<br />
manufacturer — which are not as common<br />
as you might think, considering that virtually<br />
everyone on this planet wears shoes. Chances<br />
are a shoe designer will have to leave their<br />
own country to find a skilled footwear<br />
production facility, may have to source their<br />
materials from yet another country, and may<br />
have to agree to a minimum order of shoes<br />
that is far beyond what they think they will sell<br />
in a year. It’s scary and complicated and not<br />
for the faint of heart. Sometimes I wonder<br />
how any new shoe designers manage to get<br />
started.<br />
Collins: Who are some of the most amazing<br />
unsung shoe designers, in your eyes?<br />
Jenna: I am a very enthusiastic fan of both<br />
Dutch and English shoe designers; both<br />
countries seem to produce a disproportionate<br />
number of exciting footwear designers. In<br />
the Dutch camp, Hester Vlamings creates<br />
some very special designs, beautifully<br />
conceived and crafted. My interest in Rene<br />
van den Berg’s designs has rapidly become<br />
obsessive — they are like shoes from another<br />
dimension! Georgina Goodman, an English<br />
designer, is another of my favorites, as is the<br />
Canadian John Fluevog and the French label<br />
Larare. I could go on and on, because there<br />
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