Her grandfather worked at Brown Shoe; her grandmother designed couture sandals
By Jeannette Batz Cooperman
Photographs courtesy of Tiffany and Co.
Elizabeth Brady was sipping wine with her husband in the Piazza della Republica in Florence, her eyes following a strolling couple, a flash of color from an umbrella, another flash as a window shutter swung open. Suddenly she rose. “I’ll be right back,” she blurted, and ran to their hotel room for her leather and color swatches. She spread them across the table and, glancing up and down, chose the palette and shape of her spring ’07 shoe collection.
Brady knows how to connect design to the world around her. A St. Louisan who moved to Chicago with her husband, she started designing shoes in 2003, after an advertising career that required the branding of everything from McDonald’s to Southwest Airlines. Now her own brand, featured in Women’s Wear Daily and on Dailycandy.com, sells in Chicago and San Francisco boutiques. Brady’s fall line debuts this fall in St. Louis, at Wish (9765 Clayton, 314-432-0800, www.wishshoes.com).
Hallmark: “All my shoes are made in Italy—I translate my documents into Italian. One manufacturer is outside of Milan, and now I have a second outside of Florence. They’ve passed down the craft for generations; nobody works with leather the way Italian artisans do.”
The Italian approach: “Very intense and very relaxed at the same time. They’re passionate about deadlines—they get very dramatic about being off schedule—yet they take off the entire month of August. They have a much more personal approach to business, a very different sensibility.”
Genetic predisposition: “My grandmother designed couture sandals and sold them to Saks Fifth Avenue and Marshall Field’s in the ’20s. I had her catalogs and sketches, all her record books, so I could see how much she spent on leather; and a patent she applied for here in St. Louis, a wooden sole she had created with a sculptured, Asian-influenced heel.”
Tribute: “I named my ‘Irene’ shoe after my grandmother. It’s a sandal, of course, bronzed metallic with knotted detailing. And I was just selected as a key designer by Marshall Field’s [now Macy’s].”
Training: “Chicago Art Institute. I was 39, working side by side with 18-year-olds. Then I wanted to really understand the architecture of shoes, so I trained in Street, England, where a 3-D modeling program for shoe design was developed.”
Why shoes are so often an exercise in masochism: “There’s a specific way your foot needs to fit in a shoe for it to be comfortable. Ever feel like the ball of your foot is on fire? If you try on heels and you feel pressure in the ball of your foot, don’t buy them. Your weight should be on your heel.”
Where she goes for trend forecasts: “Lineapelle, two shows a year in Bologna, Italy. All the shoe people converge.”
Icons: “Christian Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik—and, no, I don’t think Blahnik’s overrated. He’s found a way to stay fresh season after season, and that’s a huge feat. He has the ability to re-create himself.”
Material world: “I look for contrasts. I love working with reptiles—alligator and lizard skins—and combining different textures, maybe lizard skin with a really soft suede. Wish will be carrying a black patent leather with a stripe of leopard-print pony. And for spring I’m using silk shantung and imported French lace.”
