INTRODUCING: ZOE LEE
British – currently Paris-based – footwear designer Zoe Lee creates shoes for anyone who values and appreciates exceptional quality, fine materials and exquisite craftsmanship. She graduated from Central Saint Martins with a Bachelor of Womenswear, but “eventually realized that she could convey stories with shoes” and attended The Royal College of Art, where she was awarded a Master’s in Fashion Women’s Footwear. Mentored by Manolo Blahnik, Lee went on and interned at Alexander McQueen, where eventually McQueen’s obsession with textures and finishes caught her attention and stimulated her imagination. So, she decided that “texture over color is important” and to apply it to footwear. Her career in fashion began at Vivienne Westwood in 2003. Since then, she has added collaborations with few more mega-designers to her impressive resume: Betty Jackson, Erdem, Basso and Brooke and John Rocha and she spent some years designing in Barcelona.
In 2012, she decided to put the knowledge she acquired into motion debuting her namesake line. She moved back to London, and while in Paris for a brief visit, she encountered a little boutique that was meant to be the first boutique to host her designs.
Lee is “inspired by everything; travel, exhibitions and seeing beautiful materials.” She uses a range of diverse and imaginative materials – kidskin, patent, linen, suede – a process which requires a lot of the design time, but admits that she loves “leather and enjoys sourcing fabrics for the shoes.” When she designs, her main focus is on silhouette, and developing a frame work in which to display the materials, and texture. To Lee, the process is more important than the final product: “Fashion tends to focus on the product, but the truth is that it takes a long time to become really good.”
Her collections are not themed seasonally rather there is a constant theme – creating new contexts through the use of material and color – that runs through every collection.
For her Spring/Summer ’14 line, Lee is introducing coated linen to give her designs a more casual feel. Coated linen, silver foil and bronze details, splashes of suede and patent, and golden, baroque inspired prints are used to create ankle boots, menswear inspired brogues and sandals. The heel height – flat, block-, mid- or platform heel – is indeed ideal for an all-day look.
Enjoy the images of Zoe Lee’s S/S ’14 collection below:
Browse the entire Zoe Lee collection on zoelee.co.uk
Images courtesy of Zoe Lee
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