Perth-born shoe designer Kira Goodey, putting the fruity into footwear. Banana shoes by Scarlet Fever Footwear, $1226, from www.scarletfeverfootwear.com. Stylist: Teagan Sewell. Picture: Chantel Concei Source: PerthNow
KIRA Goodey has worked on shoes for everyone from Angelina Jolie to Lady Gaga. These days she runs her own business, putting the fun, funky and even fruity into footwear.
She admits it's a pretty kooky idea - fruit shoes. But Perth expat shoe designer Kira Goodey says she was inspired by a particularly grim winter in London. "I had tropical on the brain," Goodey says. "All I wanted was to be on a beach sipping cocktails out of pineapples."
It's not the first time Goodey's work has been inspired by food. She started her career as a costume designer for Perth company Character Creations and laughingly remembers designing a giant broccoli.
"A large part of the business was making mascots - we'd do the Eagles and Dockers mascots - but there'd also be some weird stuff like the giant broccoli and a giant burger with one eye," Goodey says.
"But I enjoyed doing that because it was quite a challenge. I mean, just working out how to make a giant broccoli that someone can be inside for hours on end. It was a great job. I had a lot of fun."
Perth-born shoe designer Kira Goodey, putting the fruity into footwear. Acne dress, $625, from Elle, Nedlands. Grapefruit shoes by Scarlet Fever Footwear, $1062, from www.scarletfeverfootwear.com. Stylist: Teagan Sewell. Picture: Chantel Concei Source: PerthNow
From costume design, Goodey then joined forces with her long-time best friend, Perth artist Tanaacé Andrews, to form local label Of Cabbages and Kings.
After she moved to London in 2008, the label ceased production, but Goodey picked up a coveted internship, print-designing for the late great Alexander McQueen - an experience she describes as "eye-opening".
"Working for a big-name designer was what I thought I wanted to do," she says. "But I didn't like the way people were treated. I didn't like how much the staff had to sacrifice of their own lives in a completely thankless environment. And I didn't like the offshore production.
"It really pushed me out of the world of fashion and into the craft/artisan world because I prefer the entire process."
In 2010 Goodey was offered a job at McQueen, but declined. And after speaking with an acquaintance who makes shoes, Goodey decided to give that a go.
Apprenticing with luxury shoemaker Paul Thomas, Goodey spent a year learning the basics. From the traditional to crazy couture, Goodey moved on to be an apprentice with celebrity shoe designer Natacha Marro, where she worked on shoes for Lady Gaga, cross-dressing English artist Grayson Perry and Hollywood star Angelina Jolie for her role in the 2014 fantasy-thriller Maleficent.
"Paul Thomas was mainly men's shoes - but he was very, very thorough," says Goodey. "And from Natacha I learnt about the crazy applications you can do.
"We had such colourful clients. Not only does she do the high-fashion stuff - a large element of her clientele is the fetish community, so you get a lot of men coming in for women's shoes. People who lead double lives. It was a lot of fun."
Perth-born shoe designer Kira Goodey, putting the fruity into footwear. Wild Horses majestic skirt, $220, and Max clutch, $99, from The Annex, Mount Hawthorn; Merge, Subiaco; and Shop 28, North Perth. Watermelon shoes by Scarlet Fever Footwear, $1226, from www.scarletfeverfootwear.com. Stylist: Teagan Sewell. Picture: Chantel Concei Source: PerthNow
Goodey says that often stars wouldn't have the time to come in for fittings, so casts had to be made and sent into the studio.
"For a long time we had a plaster cast of Lady Gaga from the waist down," she says.
"It was pretty funny and you can imagine there were a lot of very silly photos posing with the rear end of Lady Gaga."
In January this year, Goodey launched her own label, Scarlet Fever Footwear, and while she says she's exploring darker themes, she hopes to keep the fun and humour in her designs.
"That was another consequence of my past experience. I find that a lot of people take fashion way too seriously," she says.
"It doesn't have to be serious and it doesn't have to be so deeply conceptual that visually no one could ever identify what's going on.
"I think fashion should be fun, and I think it should have a sense of humour and have a bit of a giggle. Not enough people do that."
0 comments:
Post a Comment