Le Shouvre

Good Lord, it has been a long time since Le Shouvre was updated. It’s all bubbling under the surface these days, so there’s not much finalised content to share. However, I have slowly been keeping up the shoe-painting…

… so slowly, actually, that this pair took me about a month to finish, due to a boatload of other commitments. Whoops! But they’re done now, and looking… well, old? The point was to make a pair of slip-ons that resemble an old pair of lace-ups; an optical illusion of sorts. As such, they are one of the few pairs that will actually look better after they’ve been worn for a few weeks, and have accumulated a sufficient amount of dirt and grime. Not for everyone, I know.

More pics here

This is partly to show people that I haven’t just been sitting around not painting shoes for the past month. Well, I have indeed not been painting shoes… and I have indeed been sitting a fair amount, in various places… but for good reason!

My friend Jules and I embarked on a musical journey, the product of which I can now reveal: Royal Native. Thus far only the Myspace is presentable, but a website is almost finished, and numerous other seeds have been planted amidst the varied soils of the blogosphere, too. All songs were written, performed, recorded and produced by the two of us, as well as any artwork. As more Royal Native stuff is finished, I will no doubt want to show it off here as well. In the meantime, however, I’ll let the selection of songs speak for themselves…

(And for the audiophiles amongst us, higher quality versions of the songs can be found on last.fm)

I know, I know, shoe designing has slowed down significantly as of late, but I’m in the process of moving into a new flat in Edinburgh, and I won’t have steady access to the internet for a while. Never fear, however; I’m still using any free time to apply paint to shoe, and should have my next pair finished shortly.

In other news, POP have unveiled their new logo reworking(s), as designed by Damien Hirst. So on the one hand, the pair I designed now look dated, but let’s be honest, Damien’s got a slightly bigger international reputation than yours truly…

My reverse migration has taken place, and I’m now back on the less summery shores of Britannia, right in time for the cold weather to set in. France, you will be missed, but the good news is that anyone who has ordered a pair and resides on these isles can rest assured that they will not fall prey to the ridiculous French postage laws!

In non-related news, the recording in Normandy went well, and I’ve spent the past couple of days in Norfolk mastering the tracks. But now it’s time to get back into shoe-customizing mode! (However, if you are interested, watch this space for more information about my musical side projects…)

And though it’s early days, Le Shouvre is in talks with several people about the possibility of branching out into customized clothing. If things go well I’ll elaborate further, but all I can do for now is recommend that you check back in the near future!

Not the most original name, I know, but hey at least it’s informative.

Yet again I was granted sweet, beautiful artistic liberty, so yet again I employed a design idea that I’d had waiting in the wings for a while. Geometry once again becomes the centrepiece, as I explored the relationship between triangles, trapezoids, and isometric cubes.

This sort of design usually lends itself to computer-aided precision; exact angles and perfectly straight lines and such. But I opted for a more deliberate presentation of a hand-drawn effort, and furthered the overall feel by incorporating a strong fade across both shoes. In addition, the progression of the design seems somewhat out of place, almost as if the shoes are being worn on the wrong feet. Take that, computer!

More pics here

It’s August, and here in France the entire month is notoriously used as a relaxing break from the rest of the year. So, I’m going to follow suit and press ‘pause’ on the real world for a week or so, and head off to deepest darkest Normandy to record some music with a friend.

When I get back, I will then be preparing for my reverse migration back to the UK. As such, Le Shouvre will no doubt slow down a little for the next few weeks – I’ve got a lot of commissions to get through once I’m back, but thankfully the most urgent ones are finished.

See you soon…

This pair were inspired by the unmistakable language of written music. I chose to stick to a black/white combination, given the look of most sheet music, and went for a straight-forward display on the back warping into a more abstract display of familiar symbols on the front.

More pics here

For this pair, I was given creative liberty, on the condition that I use bright colours. As if I wouldn’t!

I’ve wanted to use a tree as a centre piece for a while now, and eager to include the Le Shouvre isometric cubes (as usual), I ended up producing an odd combination of abstract shapes and plantlife. The shoes are somewhat congested, but the colours create enough of a contrast that your eyes can hopefully absorb it all.

Plus, if cubes grew on trees like fruit, I’d totally get my hands on one.

More pics here (the pictures are unfortunately slightly over-exposed, and the bright sunlight may make the colours look a little more faded than they really are…)

POP magazine are in the process of relaunching their publication as an online-only platform, centered around a blog hub of international fashionable goodness. Well, we all knew magazines were on the way out, anyway…

To mark this online resurrection of the London-based fashion publication, POP is targeting that most effective of social networking websites, Facebook. So click here to view the new POP Facebook group, and what better incentive to simply click “join” than by having the chance to win yourself a pair of Le Shouvre’s finest?

Last Monday, the POP of the day was yours truly, and (typos and “interesting” jokes aside) they were pretty chuffed to have a unique prize to put up for grabs. So spread the word about the Facebook group – it’s not like it’s very difficult or costly – and keep your fingers crossed. And, as the POP logo itself is due for a reworking soon, there may be more collaborations in the pipeline for the near future…

Full article here

And to see the shoes in question, click here

Part two of the Peruvian installment, this pair of espadrilles are a bit more refined than their older sisters.

The brief was simple – sun and moon – so I kept the design simple, too. A pair of natural espadrilles, in which the canvas itself acts as a blanket of cloud. Occasionally, poking through the cloud cover, are glimpses of a clear sky – a big bright sun burning one on shoe, and a crescent moon glittering amongst the stars on another.

Once again, I deliberately left large areas of the canvas blank, in order to keep the feel of the shoes as soft and light as possible – they are espadrilles, after all – so the end result is a compromise between design and form… which sounds pretty sophisticated for a pair of espadrilles, doesn’t it?

More pics here