Jili Allen - Designer & Creative Consultant

Shoe design, branding & identity

Realised my site has been a little wordy of late…

So, here is a pair of shoes I’ve designed when I saw the most divine and surreal slate grey shell just parading itself around like a burlesque fan, hope you like!

From drawing to reality :)

As promised, here are my ‘Alice in Wonderland’ inspired shoes.

I call them the ‘White Rabbit’, and they are blue velvet, white leather, and white cotton lace, and inspired by our very favourite bad time-keeping rabbit.

Copyright and all rights reserved 2010 by Jili Allen (moi!)

Sketches sketches sketches…

In a clutter clearing manner, I’ve been whizzing through my old sketchbooks and scraps of paper packed with doodles, only to find this wee gem!  Inspired by the gorgeous artist Degas whilst I was in Paris, (and as you can see by the stamp, at the Vogue offices - yes I lived the dream!) I filled my spare moments with dreamy shoes… 2008 - way before Dior anthropomorphised the heel, sigh… back to the drawing board/napkin/coaster/graph paper…

These shoes were handmade during Paul Thomas’ handmaking shoe course; www.paulthomasshoes.com where I learnt to create all aspects from design to pattern cutting to last to heel design and all the pins in between! This gave me a great insight into the great complexities of footwear design and manufacture and I have never looked at a shoe the same again!  I got my paws on some beautiful Vivienne Westwood fabric; which I contrasted with some soft black leather to create a pair of court shoes with influences of brogue. I wanted to make a pair of shoes that I could wear every day but that were different to your average court shoe, with definite class! Art Nouveau is my favourite art period, one which was encouraged while I was in Paris; I love the fluid languid lines that are so gorgeously feminine that when contrasted with brogue detailing which is quintessentially masculine, provides the balance of the working woman.