‘Shoes, glorious shoes, bla bla bla and custard’ – as the old song goes. I’m not a shoes man, but I do appreciate multi-coloured wellies, or small shoes with a spider’s web on them. This appreciation paid off when I visited Rebecca Park at William Lamb Footwear in Northampton.
As you’ll see from the video clip, the amount of colours you can get your wellies in these days is vast. In my day, you had green or black and neither was a fashion winner.
Kids in wellies were mocked. My mum forced me and my brothers to wear them at the mere sight of a grey cloud, and I was often attacked at school with the wounding line, ‘you look like a farmer.’
Anyway, back to Rebecca, who looks to have a dream job. She’s being creative every day and she gets to see her designs on children’s feet when she’s out and about. Not sure what the parents think about someone staring at their kids’ shoes all the time, but that’s Rebecca’s concern.
In the extract from the full video, listen out for some useful advice for people thinking of going into design, not just for footwear but all areas of the subject.
