WHERE

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

PIXIE MARKET'S WEB PAGE

Yes! Our shoes are finally selling online at PIXIE MARKET in USA, but if you are close by,  you can always drop by their shop in New York (Lower East Side) to try them on.

I had to post a picture of how their front page looks. I love it! I think the HARD WHERE strapline is genius. I think Magda and Gaelle are doing such a good job in this cool small boutique. These two girls travel the world looking for the newest thing that catches their eye. What a nice job they have.

This leather wallet is inspired by the experimentation of using shoe laces in new & creative ways.  If you remember we were talking about what had inspired us to design the AW2010 collection in a previous blog post, and it was all about “tying up and down”.

The shoe laces are threaded through the eyelets & woven, creating a braided edge all around the wallet.

This large wallet features zip, note and coin pockets and is made from fine milled cow leather.Completely handmade and all in leather and brass hardware. See Alex wearing it bellow.

ADA wallet- £58

ADA wallet- £58

Last Sunday we hit the streets of East London – where our design studio is – and take some pictures of Alex wearing our shoes and accessories.

Alex is a dancer (she has done ballet since she was a little girl) and she loved the CADI boot so much that I couldn’t do anything else but giving it to her as a present, because she looked great with them on.

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At the same time we decided to film a little video of how this multifunctional boot works. Some people have been asking how easy they are to wear, so here you go! See for yourself.

I have a pair myself and I personally love them with the spats on, but most of the time I end up wearing them as ankle boots. I guess it is not cold enough to be wearing tall boots yet and I hope it stays like this for a little while yet!

Cherry brogue handmade WHERE with nails

We are very proud that our completely handmade – made by shoe artisans in India – will grace Postmistress and Office stores next week Monday the 21st.

Besides what we like to think of as stand out design, our shoes are different from the average high street fare in that they are not machine lasted. What is lasted?

Well lasting is when you mount (no sniggering) the upper of the shoe to a shape (called a last). Factoid, that’s where the Old Blue Last, a trendy pub in London’s East End gets its name from.

We digress. So we work with small producers, and that allows us to provide a quality and bespoke shoe-making look.

For example see the nails in the shoes on these pics. It looks handmade no?

Inspiration
Our inspiration for this collection is Tie me up tie me down. Go on have a read.

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GFW bag 100 recycled

Even we are at the moment in India working in our SS2010 new designs and developments, in London at WHERE we had a GFW’ spy. Her name is Lucia Jaconelli (an University of West England’s second year student who has been doing a work placement in our London office and being of great help).

Here is how she describes the event on the 7th of June:

Sunday, 7th June kicked off the much anticipated Graduate Fashion Week (GFW) 2009 at Earls Court. The spectacular 4-day event showcases the very new and up and coming raw talent set to hit the fashion industry. ‘WHERE’ made a visit to the event on Tuesday and here’s what we thought……

Epsom triumphed with strong menswear and Georgina Kemp provided a refreshing break with her cute perspex belts and bows. Adorable!

EPSOM-GEORGINA KEMP

Ravensbourne’s Hayley Compton’s striking graphic style printed dresses made a bold statement. We know this graduate has a bright future ahead!

HAYLEY COMPTON

HAYLEY COMPTON

One of the highlights of the day (although I must admit I am slightly biased being a fellow second year student of UWE) was the University of West England show. They certainly know how to work the catwalk with UWE’s most legendary fan, 70 year old Dj Derek who graced the stage with his reggae mixes, a beer in one hand and a dec in the other!

More: this jewelled dress by Francesca Jennings (whose work experience at Matthew Williamson has clearly paid off with this number) was a clear winner of the collection.

FRANCESCA JENNINGS

FRANCESCA JENNINGS

The day certainly didn’t disappoint with a strong menswear collection from over sized knitwear pieces in De Monfort + Ravensbourne to cool accessories in Epsom’s show.

MENSWEAR EPSOM

RAVENSBOURNE MENSWEAR

CINTA, LIEFDE, DRAGOSTE and MILESTIBA have been so far our most successful designs for SS2009. For some of them we are already running very short of sizes in our online shop. But if you still want to buy them or try them and we don’t have them you may be able to find them at Terra Plana shops in London, at Shoon shops in London, or at  the Natural Store online, where we also just started retailing.

We just added these new WHERE products to our online shop. Please give us feedback. Hope you like them!

WHERE is going to India tonight in preparation for the development of the Spring/Summer 2010 collection. So WHERE thought it would be interesting to re-visit the last trip to India. It focused on the development of our Spring/Summer 2009 collection.

The trip was hectic, packed with visiting the workshops in the cities of Jaipur and Delhi as well as working & developing with artisans in rural areas.

This is because every WHERE shoe consists of hand crafted elements or recycled parts.

We spent more than a month in India working on the project, and I wish we had taken more pictures, but at that time we were not (yet) into blogging as we are now. This time it wont be the same. Promise.

Thank goodness for Pooja, our Indian connection traveling with us from CFM (community friendly movement).  She has such a bubbly and easy-going approach, apart from being an excellent translator.

India is a whole new universe. Some of the things that we found very interesting, apart of shoe making, was visiting block printing and textile workshops (block print stamps and block printer master below).

Right across India you will find small companies, organizations and factories that are intensely involved in product development, whether it is fabrics, shoes, leather work or jewelry. And its not only in the cities but in rural areas as well.

When jobs are provided for those living in rural areas it helps to keep families together. Normally in rural areas there are not many jobs, so usually the men move to the cities to work in big factories and spent months away from the family to be able to send money. Very often this is what happens in developing countries.

We would like to contribute to keep this from happening in India where possible. And in conjunction with our IFAT partner, Community Friendly Movement, we ensure that workers received fair wages and received rational contributions.

We are not able to produce a whole shoe in the rural communities, because to make shoes some special machinery, skills are needed, but we can make some of the components in rural communities, specially for the summer ranges.

We then transfer the components to a small size organized workshop, where the shoe making and leather work is still done by hand, but with the correct tools and skills needed.

WHERE is looking forward to more sights and sounds and stories from India. And of more ridiculously hot temperatures (40 degrees to estimate), mad traveling plans and even more interesting product designs!

Due to public demand, we decided to and add the following blogs to our favorite top 10 list (which is now no longer ten)

 Clutch 22
Apart from being an appealing fashion and shopping blog to read, it is also really organized.  Interesting links are easy to locate because it does not go OTT (Over The Top).  It really does focus on how to bag bargains, however it is based on Stateside retailers.  Nonetheless, it helps to know these things on a global basis.

Alix Rose
For a ‘girl next door’ to be blogging this way, this sight looks very professional.  The photography is appealing, the page is clean and clear, this blog looks editorial.  Yet she speaks from the heart, you can clearly pick up on the author’s fashion ‘obsession’.  It covers everything from photo shoots, to clothes she wears and trends she sees, to retailers such as Forever 21 .  Again another blog focusing on American retailers!  Tsk tsk, this compelling read needs to be brought over!

Dream Sequins
This is a very fun name – we like it!  It seems more like a lifestyle blog that incorporates fashion on a high level.  Her everyday musings, fashion statements and even any interesting meals she has eaten, making this very real.  However, she also shows her creative element through interviews with other top fashion bloggers, twitter topics of interest as well as designer profiles.  This one works!

La Petite Fashionista
This one is fun and frivolous, reflecting a college writer.  But even so, her writing is proficient, and she definitely knows how to make a page work for her.  We love the three small tabs at the end of each entry, because they are colourful, bright and concise, making the reader want more.  This blog is eclectic in terms of page styling, but completely fashion oriented in content.  This is one to keep on observing…