While Imelda’s made much ado about the diabolical state of Australian footwear, if you’ve wondered what the future of luxury Australian footwear looks like, let me introduce New Zealand born (and Australian based) footwear designer Carrie Cooper.
Yesterday
Cooper sat down for an EXCLUSIVE tete e tete with the Despotic Queen and
guuurl’s, let me tell you, Cooper’s packin’ canned heat in her heels.
Leaving
New Zealand in 2000, Cooper travelled (a path well worn by Australians and New
Zealanders) to the Ol’ Blighty. There Cooper hooked up with a Portuguese
cobbler who, according to the designer, taught her to “be a cobbler”.
Not
exactly your Mister Minute type affair, Cooper revealed her mentor “owned the
rights to make shoes for Eley Kishimoto and Bernard Wilhelm” and if that wasn’t
enough to make your panties moist they also (amongst other brands) “launched
the SWEAR and B-Store collections”.
Our
interview had only just started and Cooper was already scraping Imelda’s jaw of the floor.
Cooper
then went on to work for Alexander McQueen “where we launched the Puma collaboration”
Fast
forward to 2007 and while holidaying in Sydney, Cooper was introduced to the
owners of Ksubi via her ‘good friend’ and fellow ex-pat Richard Nicoll. Ksubi
propositioned the designer (then working for Lacoste) about moving to Sydney
and designing Ksubi’s footwear.
Cooper
revealed she was charmed by both the harbour city “Sydney’s nicer than London”
she laughed and Ksubi. It was then Cooper decided to roll the dice and move
back to the Antipodes and work with Ksubi to launch their footwear collection.
Clutching
her passport (and a CV that could bring even the hardest footwear aficionado to
their knees) the 30 year-old got down to work on launching Ksubi’s footwear
collection in March 08. By the time October 08 rolled around Cooper (along with
a dozen or so other staff) found herself “kicked out on the street” when Ksubi’s
financial woes forced the company to make mass redundancies.
“Great”
laughed Cooper, “sooo, I’ve sold my house in London, relocated to another
country and I’ve got no job…but, I love the beach though”
Taking
time to reassess, Cooper took a couple of months break before she met with David
and Rocco Mascitelli (owners of fashion wholesale company NMI which includes men’s footwear
label Brando).
Together
they formed a company called ‘The House of Last’ which oversees the NMI
portfolio of footwear brands. Cooper’s directive was to “re-channel the
direction of the company and do something a little more interesting”. On top of
an already mounting ‘things to do’ list, the Mascitelli brothers also gave Cooper
“free reign to start her own brand”
Et voila…Beau
Coops (sorry, no link as there's no website) was born.
Imelda
asked about the brands moniker and Cooper revealed her best friend at art
school (in NZ) nicknamed her Beau Coops. Explaining further, “I’ve always been
really uncomfortable using my own name, I shy away from publicity, which is why
I decided to use my artistic name. The literal English meaning of Beau is a
dandy and Coops is my last name”
Striking
a cord with Imelda’s eyes was the utilitarian feel to Cooper’s collection.
Crepe soled wedges, masculine tailoring and a muted colour palette dominate her
impressive debut.
Cooper herself admits she’s not a “girly girl” and that much like her choice of name, her design aesthetic is “a combination of signatures”, mixing masculine and feminine influences.
Her
design aesthetic is deliberately timelessness and according to Cooper “It’s not
about bells and whistles. It’s about the construction, materials, form and
function. I don’t want to create something that would fling around from season
to season.”
Interestingly,
Beau Coops hasn’t even hit stores and Cooper finds herself leading the charge
of designers who are attempting to break away from the current trend of flashy
statement shoes.
It
isn’t just Imelda going ga-ga for Beau Coops, despite the cloud of ‘misery’
hovering over retail Cooper reports ‘orders have been strong’.
The
Despotic Queen spoke to Lady Petrova designer, Petrova Hammond, who revealed she “can't wait” to stock the brand in her Melbourne
boutique!
Hammond also said
“Beau Coops is the perfect shoe label for Melbourne, because it balances a
fashion forward edginess with totally practical shoes that you can run around
in!”
While the market’s
been quick to embrace the brand, Cooper admitted she was nervous about her
first solo project, “You’re used to hearing the feedback when you’re hiding
behind someone else’s name, like Bernhard Wilhem. When you put your own name on
it, you get a bit nervous but I think the reaction (from retailers) has been,
luckily, what I’d hoped for”
None
of this surprises an old warhorse like Imelda. Beau Coops, like Brisbane based
luxury footwear brand Tom Gunn, has cleverly priced themselves into the middle
of the luxury footwear market. Cooper admits pricing was a key factor “I was a
struggling designer living in London, wanting to buy top end designers and not
being able to afford it. I’ve always wanted to do a collection that was made in
the same way as the others (top end brands) were, but at a price point”
Aside
from the crepe wedge, Cooper’s collection is all made by hand (in Italy) and
from quality Italian fabrications.
Imelda
was glamoured by the tumbled Tuscan nubuck (above). Luxurious to touch, the nubuck has
been put through a treatment process that results in the skin appearing aged yet
supple.
Genuinely
excited by the launch of Beau Coops, Imelda can only hope that what is bound to
be a highly successful venture, will inspire a new generation of designers to
actively pursue a career designing footwear in Australia.
