WHERE

December 29th, 2009

Et Pourquoi Pas - Coline

Bloggers love The Ariana boots and the Tressa shoes. They have been the most picked up products of this season’s WHERE collection.

We guess fashion bloggers tend to go for the statement pieces.

The latest blogger featuring us is Coline, a french blogger who writes “Et Pourquoi Pas”.

At WHERE we don’t know the world of French fashion blogging well yet, but this blog is right up there with the best. Coline has a really nice style.

Coline discovered WHERE at the Need Supply online shop and she bought not only one, but two products: TRESSA and ARIANNA.

She says about TRESSA:

“I immediately fell in love with these heels. They’re beautiful high and above these massive nails…
…it was like a moment of intense happiness. A second or I told myself that my life was perfect …

The story of the moment of happiness it is real. It’s crazy the fact that a pair of shoes can have on us, the poor superficial girls who live only for cotton and leather stuff…
It is these foot pumps, voila. The leather is sublime, the perfect arch and barely strung…

I skipped all day, perched and I did not bleed the toes.

I do not think the shoes “committed” could be so perfect. Especially when I see shoes not involved at all, but that cost 2 times more expensive are just 15 times less comfortable…”

Wow – way cool shoe prose there Coline!

Coline says about ARIANNA boots:

“On my last order with NeedSupply I did a double win. Well, yes.

Left to pay customs fees as exorbitant pay for a real order (in theory two balls).

These are the shoes of the brand Where that had attracted my attention first…

So as the shoes offset is the bomb baby. Height impeccably perfect, very soft leather, details that kill.”

Now Google Translate did not get all of her wonderfully idiomatic French, but Coline is obviously a fashion poet!

Other bloggers wearing TRESSA and ARIANNA bellow:

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December 16th, 2009

Our range of fairly traded felt slippers are in our online shop, and you can also get them from RIFT shoes in London. If you are in Cornwall, you can pass by Sea Salt to get your pair as a Christmas treat.

These came from a collaboration with Belgium graphic artist and character designer, Leen Michiels, and WHERE. You can read more about this collaboration here.

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December 4th, 2009

COCOROSA'S PICTURE

This lady is unique. You probably know her. She is Chantal from COCOROSA blog and on of my favorite bloggers.

I love her style so much, but also I love the fact that she is a smiley fashion blogger. Fashion does not have to be unfriendly, ehhhhh?

And yesterday she posted an outfit where she was wearing our TRESSA studded wedge shoes with a tutu.

When I designed the last thing I thought was that it would be worn with a tutu, but now that I see them I love the idea.

And here are some of the comments that appear under these outfit:

rossovelvet said…

You look adorable, like a (nicer) ballerina !! It’s great how you often wear white + grey + black in a DEFINITELY unboring way !

Patty said…

I love this outfit! Perfect parts ballerina and rocker chick. Definitely saving this to my inspiration folder.

This one is also going to my inspirational folder Chantal!

And for those that like the shoes and want to add them to their wordrobe, we do have a 30% discount for our Twitter followers if you buy them from our online shop.

https://twitter.com/WHEREitisAT

By Laura

December 2nd, 2009

Hello all. WHERE is offering its Twitter followers a special 30% discount off all the items in its online shop.

If you are not a WHERE Twitter follower you can be. Just go here ( https://twitter.com/WHEREitisAT ).

We will Tweet a special promotional code from today until 26th of December. The promotion will apply to all products in the shop (that are not sold out of course).

Once you get to the check out page just add your promotional code and you will get a 30% discount on the items you have bought.

Thank you for following us!

November 26th, 2009

Last week we were in India for a few days in preparation for production of our SS2010 collection, which is going on now.

Soon we will be posting inspirational mood-boards, sketches and some pictures to give you a hint of what is coming.

HAND LASTING OF ONE OF OUR SPRING BOOT SANDAL DESIGNS

While in India we took some pictures at one of our main suppliers, ORBIT. This small factory has been really supportive of our brand and has been improving the quality of the products they make for us all the time.

We wanted to show you what we mean when we say that our shoes are completely handmade. What do we mean with this?

Well… nowadays most of the shoes get made as follows:

The different patterns of leather get sewn together and then they get mounted on top of a plastic or wooden shape called a “last”. This process tends to happen mainly by machine nowadays.

Our shoes are still hand-lasted. The small size factories that we use are doing all this process by hand, and this is what in a way make our products special. See pictures in the gallery bellow.

Some of these small factories that we work with are now starting to invest in machines for lasting as they get more and more orders from different companies. India is a booming place for shoe making, because of the raw materials available like leather, and the quality. And we are so often visiting India now, that it is becoming like our second home.

We would like to keep the hand made look.

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November 24th, 2009

WHERE @ Need Supply

A little bit of press for us at WHERE coming from Need Supply, a really cool boutique in USA (Richmond, Virginia). They also have an online shop.

At Need Supply they sell brands like Jeffrey Campbell, Dolce Vita and Frye, which are amongst our favorite American brands, so nice to be next to them.

They say:

“We discovered WHERE during our last trip to the UK. Besides the amazing design, the companies ethics and fundamentals as a whole are what really attracted us to them. The pieces are hand made from very small producers and artisan communities around the globe. Everyone involved in the entire process of each piece receives a fair wage and is treated with the upmost respect, the way things should be. Designer Laura Villasenin is responsible for the footwear’s unique look. Laura graduated from London’s renowned school, Cordwainers, with a first class design degree in Product Design and development in the fashion industry.”

WHERE @ Need Supply's blog

November 18th, 2009

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Great news today! Katie from “WHAT KATIE WORE” is wearing our multifunctional boot.

Katie pulls off a look that others would struggle to. One of the best comment from her readers talks about how she mixes stuff: “I never thought either of those items could be put together – but you’ve done it and it works a treat! Love it xx”

This is a boot with a spat, that you can wear as an ankle boot or as a knee high boot. The boot has a bit of a western – you know as in cowboy – look to it.

We have sold out in most of the sizes for this style, but if we don’t have the size you are looking for, you can get your pair from ASCENSION’s new shop at St Christopher’s place in London (closer tube is Bond St). You can also get a pair at KOLKATA Boutique in Brighton and in some selected URBAN OUTFITTERS stores thought out USA.

If you can’t get them from a shop, email us and we’ll try and make a plan.

We might make some more because of the demand we have had. Will keep you posted on Twitter and this blog if we do.

November 15th, 2009

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Last Wednesday ASCENSION celebrated the opening of their first retail store in London. Previously ASCENSION (known as ADILI before they re-branded) were selling their products exclusively online.

This new flagship store (1800 squared foot) on St Christopher’s Place, very close to another of our favorite shoe boutiques, AUTHOR shoes.

As Adam Smith, from ASCENSION, said:

“…Not only we are delighted to provide superior costumer care service and the best selection of today’s stylish eco-offering, but we also look forward to offering a platform for young designers to showcase their work”.

Black By Noir, Edun and Sonya Kashmiri are some of our favourite names also available from ASCENSION.

And of course we are really happy to be part of this exciting new opening. Thanks for giving us the chance.

PS. In the gallery above, you can see the WHERE products that ASCENSION is stocking.

November 9th, 2009

Recently at WHERE we traveled to Philadelphia to visit URBAN OUTFITTERS’s head quarters (WHERE was completely amazed by how cool their offices are).

They are based inside a 132-year-old navy base.

Working with Minneapolis architect Jeffrey Scherer, UO has re-purposed the Navy’s war-making factories into a creative commune, made by 600 of Philadelphia’s most creative and fashionable people.

It is Urban Outfitter’s style to display the products they sell in their stores amongst antiques and vintage relics, and in their head quarters you can experience exactly the same, but on a much larger scale.

Apparently, the first time Hayne – the founder and owner – visited the Navy Yard, he realized he had found “a mother lode of industrial artifacts“.

The Navy simply locked the doors and walked away in 1996, leaving behind such treasures as Egyptian-style cast-iron columns, 2,000-pound overhead cranes, and walls decorated with the graffiti musings and naive paintings of Navy carpenters. Hayne picked it all up for $1–5 per building. His first impulse wasn’t to clean up the buildings but to keep them exactly as they were.

By mytoenailcameoff

More than 100 bases around the country have been decommissioned since the U.S. military began its post–Cold War contraction, but Philadelphia’s Navy Yard is among the most architecturally significant. Starting around 1874 with a single Georgian-style house, the Navy constructed a miniature city on a marshy spit of Delaware waterfront. It picked up the street grid that began in the Center City District (CCD), located 3.5 miles north on Broad Street. At the peak of World War II the yard employed 60,000 people and included almost 300 buildings.

It’s a nice irony that UO’s designers now manufacture frilly clothing in the same rooms where the Navy turned out implements of war. They even store their patterns in the same cubbies where Navy engineers kept their blueprints.

Were happy to say that our current winter collection will be stocked by Urban Outfitters USA. And also the upcoming S/S 2010. Very cool.

In this galerie bellow you can see the products that you will be able to find in selected URBAN OUTFITTERS stores in USA, including our multifunctional CADI boot.

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November 6th, 2009

Last week we were very happy to see Katie from “What Katie Wore” wearing a pair of Tressa studded shoes!

Don’t know What Katie Wore?

Well, she’s got a fella called Joe. Joe challenged her to wear a different outfit every day for a whole year. And she took him up on it. Each day Joe documents Katie with a pic and a blog post.

Or as they put it simply, ‘Joe writes the blog. Katie wears the clothes’. Apparently this was meant to be his ultimate love letter. How sweet is that?!

For all London’s fashion obssesion, you don’t often see people that look that different. But Katie has a very unique style, she is super adventurous. And she obviously is not scared of colour and knows very well how to combine it in the outfits she puts together. A colourful love letter!

Katie is based just around the corner form WHERE’s design studio, in East London.