“If you will know the history you will predict the future”- I don’t remember who said it, but this sentence always exists in the back of my mind. I remember, being a student at university, my favorite books in the library were these beautifully illustrated books with historical clothing, historical shoes.
The materials, the combination of materials, the cut of the clothes from different epochs amazed me by the craftsmanship and technical abilities these masters had back in the days.
There are a lot of things to learn from our predecessors, there are a lot of historical designs to be inspired by. This time the “buttoned boots”, boots with laces from the 19-20 century caught my attention. The shape of the shoe lasts and heels, a slim silhouette, the color combinations were the main purpose to reflect in my shoe designs.
The main question was on how technically I could create such a slim shoe silhouette. I was seeking a simple technical solution because I always prefer the simplicity in technical shoe pattern-making methods. And as always, the search for an elementary technical approach led me to the exact shoe design that I was looking for.
So how to create a very thin shoe silhouette that ideally “embraces” women's feet without the use of elastic materials, and at the same time keep the feet in comfort? I came up with the idea to create such a pattern with laces that could be regulated by women according to the volume of the feet. So each woman can close the boot or pump following her own foot shape.
This is how the boots wrap around the calf. The unique pattern-making and design idea was in making the central shape of the vamp with the oval outline. Because of this rounded vamp/tongue shape, it easily repeats every human foot without creating many folds that could bother the feet.
In general, the entire pattern of the boots and pumps has oval, rounded shapes.
After all, I found the exact design of the upper. I knew already how the shoe last and heel must look, and I built them.