Fashion’s #1 Shoe Designer Paul Andrew Sees Ready-to-Wear, Beauty in His Future
Designer Paul Andrew with his SS16 collection at New York Fashion Week.
There comes a moment in every success story when the protagonist finally wakes up and realizes exactly how far he’s come: The ‘I’ve Made It Moment,’ if you will. For shoe designer Paul Andrew, the epiphany struck as he tumbled from his bike on New York’s Prince Street.
“I was cycling around SoHo, and I passed the J.Crew store and in the window was a huge portrait of myself,” Andrew recalls. “I fell off my bicycle, it was such a shock.”
The reason Andrew’s very handsome, well-chiseled mug hung in the shop window? A capsule shoe collection, created in collaboration with the mega retailer, was part of his prize for winning the 2014 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, along with $300,000 in funding and a mentorship with Tory Burch. The historical win—Andrew is the first shoe designer to claim the title—was the culmination of two years of lightning fast growth: Since launching in 2012, the self-funded brand has sky-rocketed to the top of the industry (and wish lists around the world).
As is often the case, his seemingly dizzying ascent was actually a long time coming. While Andrew launched his own brand just three years ago, the designer has been working in the fashion industry for nearly 17 years, ever since he graduated from a design school just outside of London. His career started with a bang: Andrew was named winner of Graduate Fashion Week—a competition among all of England’s design schools—and his entire graduate collection was bought by Yasmin Sewell, the buyer for popular London boutique Yasmin Cho, who is credited for helping foster the careers of Rick Owens and Jonathan Anderson. Andrew promptly caught the eye of Alexander McQueen, who took the designer on as an unpaid apprentice. “It was overwhelming,” says Andrew. “I was working for the coolest designer in London and my clothes were for sale in Soho.” Though a lot of young designers might have taken this as a sign to launch their very own brand then and there, Andrew devoted the next decade and a half of his life to learning from industry greats. In 1999, he moved to New York to launch shoes and bags for Narciso Rodrguez, and then went on to Calvin Klein and Donna Karan, where he served as head of shoes and bags for a decade.
Paul Andrew for J.Crew. Photo: J.Crew
“I am so glad I waited that long to do my own thing,” says Andrew. “Whenever I am speaking with interns here, or with students at a school, I always encourage them to dedicate a good chunk of time after they graduate to working with other people. You get to experience how the industry really works, and you get to meet people who know better than you do, about how to construct a shoe or make a dress or whatever it is. When I was ready to launch I already had great experience working with tanneries and artisans in Italy and knew which factories to use.”
Andrew finally thought the time was right in 2012, when he saw a hole in the market. “The silhouette then was very heavy and chunky and I just felt ready for this return to a certain lightness,” explains Andrew. “My personal preference has always been a single sole, and that’s really the idea that my brand was launched on.”
But Andrew, as you might have already guessed, is nothing if not thorough. “Having worked in Italy for so long, I understood that shoes were made according to measurements that were outdated,” says Andrew. “It was very much based on measurements taken in the 1970s. Now that women are wearing a sneaker everyday or they’re doing yoga and other sports, their feet have really changed.” So the designer set about updating those measurements by conducting a survey of 500 women. “Using all that information, I basically restructured how my shoes were going to be made,” he says. “The arch has a very specific inclination and I’ve also added this padding into the insole of every shoe to give you this cushion.” Comfort is at the heart of Andrew’s brand. Though the designer has expanded his line beyond the single sole—he now makes platforms, flats and boots—his attention to comfort and quality remains unchanged. Andrew still creates the prototype for each new shoe by hand, and travels to Italy, where his shoes are produced, every 15 days. “This allows me to really control how the shoes develop, how they feel on the foot,” says Andrew, who will also have his fit models test new styles. “I do maybe three or four tests before I allow the shoe to go to production, and then often, to the chagrin of my sales team, I don’t allow the shoe to go into production at all because it’s just too difficult to make it fit properly.”
A Paul Andrew SS16 shoe.
This week, the designer debuted the latest crop to make it through those stringent standards: single sole pumps, block-heeled sandals, wedges, flats and espadrilles. For Andrew, each collection begins with a city as inspiration. Last season it was New York, and this season he explored the “collision of culture” he experienced while visiting Hong Kong. From there, the designer will sketch “literally hundreds of ideas.” Mostly, he’s guided by a “gut feeling” about what sort of shoes need to be made now. Since wide-leg pants are having a moment, Andrew felt women would need a “heavier” shoe, so this season, we see a lot of block heels, rounded toes and platforms. But Andrew is careful never to stray too far from his core aesthetic. “You always have to stay true to your original idea,” says the designer. “That can be a challenge, especially in this day and age when it’s not just one thing that’s in fashion. Everything is in at any given moment. Still, you have to stand strong for what you believe in and not get too distracted.”
Andrew’s singular style and thoughtful consideration over each shoe, is what has made the brand a hit with women all over the world—including celebrities like Lupita Nyong’o and Cate Blanchett; their endorsement has been a boon to the business. “Whenever we dress a major celebrity we always see an impact on sales,” says Andrew. According to the designer, the styles worn by Nyong’o and Blanchett have both since become best-sellers.
As for what’s next for the brand, Andrew isn’t ruling anything out. “I have quite a lot of ideas and ambitions for the company,” he says. “I don’t necessarily see it as just a womens luxury shoe brand.” Andrew says he could see himself adding handbag and mens categories “in the near future.”
“I also love the idea of eyewear and maybe beauty and who knows? I mean the idea that I one day do ready-to-wear—which is what I studied in school—is also really interesting.”
