Guy West window display and interview.
Jeffery West shoe designs are so eclectic, and draw on so many different references, what was the key influence in the design of your next range?
– It’s difficult to pinpoint, there’s a science fantasy element to it,
How nervous do you get before the new range is released?
– I do worry that nobody is going to like it for sure, because you’re only ever as good as your last range.
We do have our staple classics that always sell, but you do worry. If you are picking interesting, unique leathers, they are expensive, so you worry about cost as well as whether people will like it.
Your stores are totally unique and really reflect the core influences of the Jeffery West brand. What do you consider to be the most important aspect of your shop design and layout.
– That we don’t look like a shoe shop, Basically it’s more about reflecting the influences of the shoes into the shop so it’s almost a part of the personality of the brand. You should walk in and go I get what this is about, the shoes fit, the décor fits, hopefully the staff are nice and chat and understand about a bit of banter.
Did being “Born and Bred in Northampton” the shoe capital of the UK inspire your love of shoe design?
– Yes it did, yeah. Mark my business partner, my friend, his father had a shoe factory, but I think a lot of it was that I was actually interested in fashion and shoes. Obviously being in Southampton that was something that was accessible to me so I wrote to all the local companies and got myself a job, but yeah I was genuinely interested in shoe design.
You used markets as a starting place to trade, are you still influenced by product and designs being produced and sold from modern day markets?
– I think that things have changed, Kensington Market was a big influence, there was the King Road market as well, obviously there was Camden which has changed beyond recognition almost now, but there was those kind of markets and I think that there was more home grown, interesting product on the market then.
I think it is going back that way.
– I completely agree, now if you go to Columbia Road that’s going on, you’ve got Brick Lane, Spittalfields, which I think was better before they knocked half of it down. I think it is going back because obviously when we started things were quite tough, it was a recession then and people were more interested in buying unique product or things that were made. You’d get students at Kenny market who were actually making the products themselves, and that is what you would buy. But then it went to just about how cheap products were and everything was from the Far East and it was just fleeces and cheap trainers, there was no real uniqueness about markets I think they lost that, but I do think things are going back that way.
How do you create a brand which is so proud of it’s English roots but somehow appeals to the multi-national market?
– I’m not saying it’s a conscious decision, We didn’t set out to create a brand with multi appeal but it just has, there is that multinational influence, but I think that music influence is International, British music, American music, Rock and Roll all have that influence, so people get what we’re doing, like Australia, they get us, The Dutch guys, they get it as well. We don’t sell so many in France or Switzerland, We are niche, you do have to get what we are about, it is a bit tongue in cheek, we try and put humour into what we do as well and that whole Dandy thing and being a bit flamboyant in a care free way. Not standing in front of a mirror for two hours before you go out. You get ready you look good, you get hammered and fall over, you don’t care and its that sort of let yourself go attitude and people that understand that about us, there is a flamboyance about what we do and it’s also in a way a bit tongue in cheek. You don’t take yourself too seriously either, the people who get it, get it and it isn’t just about your stiff upper lip Britishness, it’s different to that, but still very British.
You recently commissioned Professor Geoffrey Beattie to research “The Secret Language of feet” What do you think of the findings?
– That sums it up, all a bit tongue in cheek, a bit cadish, always the old saying you can tell a man by his shoes and it doesn’t matter about the rest of him
We are all particularly intrigued by the shotgun pellet marked leather?
– Yeah, they’re shotgun pellets, It’s basically a very fine goat skin and it’s got a backer on it, so in effect the shotgun pellets and sandwiched in between. The pellets do actually sometimes come through and come out. We’re not going to do it again though because it is so expensive, as it was actually breaking the needles, so as you were sewing the leather, if the needle hit on one of the balls it broke the needle, so we had to pick out the pellets all along the seams by hand so it’s been a nightmare to make, so that’s it, it’s such a unique leather so when it’s gone, it’s gone.
A little taste of our Jeffery-West selection
