Roger and Sarah Adams first began their commercial involvement with pointed stilettos in the summer of 1983, and spent several years retailing shoes ranging from original, unworn old stock stiletto-heeled women's fashion shoes from the early 1960s, to the post-punk "alternative" styles produced by the few small London factories still able to make women's shoes with pointy toes.

Manolo Blahnik was born on November 28th, 1942 in Santa Cruz de la Palma in the Canary Islands, to a Czech father and Spanish mother. He and sister Evangelina grew up on the family's banana plantation, and were home educated. Besides their grandfather's house, there were no nearby neighbors. The family frequently traveled to Madrid and Paris, where his mother bought clothes from her favorite designers. Young Manolo enjoyed looking at the designs in the fashion magazines his mother subscribed to, and he received an early education in the art of shoemaking by watching his mother make her own footwear, using ribbon and lace.

Patrick Cox was born in 1963 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, but grew up all over the world thanks to his dad Terry’s job as a linguist. He found his way into fashion after moving to Toronto, where he accidentally found a job sourcing accessories for local designer Loucas Kleanthous. One day, when he couldn’t find a particular pair of shoes for a show, Cox bought some cheap, Chinese slippers, which he customised with trim. Spotting a special talent, Kleanthous advised Cox to move to England to study shoe design and in 1983, aged 20, he moved to London to study at Cordwainers Technical College.

Beverly Feldman was trained as a shoe illustrator and designer, graduating in 1965 from New York’s Pratt Institute. After graduating, she became art director for fashion consultant Doris Weston. In the 1970’s Beverly was a designer for I. Miller and was subsequently design director for both Pankin and Andrew Geller.

History of Salvatore Ferragamo – creator of shoes and founder of the fashion house – is a true story of a poor boy turned one of the richest man in Italy. His first pair of shoes was made when he was only nine and at twelve he had his own workshop. When Salvatore was 16 his ambitions led him to the States, where he earned a reputation of the “Shoemaker to the Stars”, creating shoes for films and the most famous film stars.

John Fluevog was born in 1948 in Vancouver, where he grew up and began his career as an avant-garde shoe retailer at age 20 with family friend, Peter Fox. In 1970, they opened Fox & Fluevog Shoes in Vancouver's Gastown area and sold avant-garde footwear, including men's knee high patent leather boots in six colours.

Peter Fox was born in London, England, and there he stayed for most of his youth. He attended Bryanston School in Dorset, Camberwell Art School in London and Maidstone Art School in Kent, where he studied sculpture under Don Potter, a student of Eric Gill. It was as a young man that Peter first became enamoured of shape and line.

Maud Frizon de Marco was born in Paris, France in 1941. Her real name is Nadine. She married Gigi de Marco. For many years she worked as a model for Nina Ricci, Jean Patou, and Dior and was a particular favourite of Courreges. In the 60's models were expected to find shoes to go with the designers' clothes on their modeling assignments. She was unable to find shoes, which she wanted and so decided to make her own.

История компании Charles Jourdan начиналась в 20-е годы. Ее основатель, француз Шарль Журдан, предпочел шить надежную обувь de luxe для состоятельных провинциалов, а не для избалованных жителей столицы моды.

For fifty years, from 1949 to 1999, Joseph LaRose sold shoes in Jacksonville, Florida. Working closely with various manufacturers, Mr. LaRose customized color, design, detailing and materials to create shoes and matching handbags of the most incredible style, uniqueness and the perfect fit. It was his philosophy that good design would never go out of style. Mr. LaRose never put his shoes on sale, nor would he dispose of any of his inventory from his many stores in the Jacksonville area. He simply kept everything and sold shoes and handbags from his store, almost to his last day when he died last December.

Beth Levine was born in New York in 1914. She worked in journalism and advertising before she started working as a shoe model for Palter-Deliso, the firm that shocked the public in the late 30's by selling open-toed shoes. In the 40s like David Evins, Beth worked for I.Miller company.

Andre Perugia was born in Nice, France in 1893 of Italian parentage. He trained in his father's workshop and at the age of 16, in 1909, he opened a shop in Paris where he sold handmade shoes and was planning to concentrate on design and creativity. He later moved to Rue Faubourg St. Honore, where all the fashion designers had their salons.

Andrea Pfister was born in Pesaro, Italy in 1942. As a child, he moved to Switzerland where he was educated. Later, he returned to Florence to study art and languages at the University. In 1961, he took a course in shoe design in Ars Sutoria Institute of Footwear Design in Milan and the following year he was awarded first prize in the International Designers Contest in Amsterdam for the shoe named “Comedie”.

Edward Rayne was born in London in 1922. He joined the family firm in 1940 and served a lengthy apprenticeship in the factory of his family’s firm, H&M Rayne, learning all about the complexities of making shoes. In 1951, at the age of 29, following the death of his father, Rayne became managing director of the business, which had been founded by his grandparents in 1889.

Walter Steiger is Swiss-born, and the scion of a family of shoe designers. Following a family tradition of fine shoe making, Walter Steiger began his world-renowned career as an apprentice to a Swiss shoemaker at the age of sixteen. It was here that he developed his appreciation and understanding of the art of fine shoe making. Using only the best materials, Steiger quickly learned that fashion and function were an inseparable combination in shoe design.

Роже Вивье (Roger Vivier) создавал обувь на протяжении шести десятилетий. Он родился в Париже в 1913 году и изучал скульптуру в школе изящных искусств (L’Ecole de Beaux-Arts). По просьбе своего приятеля он попробовал сделать пару обуви, что и определило его выбор: Вивье устраивается учеником на обувную фабрику. В 1930 году начинает его сотрудничество с одним из крупнейших производителей компанией Herman B. Delman.

"I'm a real person making a real product, not a brand name hiding behind a corporation."

Stuart Weitzman's father, Seymour Weitzman, started a shoe factory in Haverhill, Massachusetts in the late 1950's. His shoes were known under the label "Seymour Shoes" and "Mr. Seymour". Stuart Weitzman began designing shoes for his father's business in the early 1960's, when Stuart was in his 20's, but he was not planning to follow in his father's footsteps although he always sketched as a hobby.

Vivienne Westwood is one of the most extraordinary, controversial and at the same time influential and recognisable British designers of the past 30 years.

She was born as Vivienne Isabel Swire in Glossop, Derbyshire, on April 8, 1941, the first child of Dora Ball and Gordon Swire. In 1957 her family moved to Station Road, Harrow (NW London). Vivienne studied one term at Harrow Art School, then attended a teacher-training college and became a primary-school teacher in Willesden, North London. In 1962 Vivienne married Derek Westwood and a year after her son, Benjamin Arthur Westwood, was born. Three years later their marriage broke, as Vivienne felt that her life was getting frustratingly circumscribed.

In 1960 his father called him back to London to help out with the family business. It quickly became apparent that Terry had an extraordinary talent for design and pattern cutting. With young Terry’s impetus and the advent of winkle pickers, the family business thrived.

One of Terry’s first clients was Paul Smith who owned a boutique called the Bird Cage in Nottingham, but his big break really came when Annie Traherne, the fashion editor of Queen magazine, discovered and championed his cause.