After living for more than four years in China, Stephanie Hensley sought to create a footwear collection based on her travels there. The resulting collection subverts established modes of thinking both in China and on an international scale through a variety of contrasts found in subtle details in each design.

This collection’s main subversion was to challenge the long-standing stigma of the term “Made in China” by producing a collection of high quality luxury footwear in the country most widely known for mass-producing cheap, low quality goods. After months of experimenting with the shapes and materials used in the collection, Stephanie returned to China to work side by side with Chinese shoemakers and craftspeople in small workshops, teaching them new processes she invented specific to her designs.

This collection references and modernizes traditional Chinese processes, shapes, and imagery, and utilizes materials rarely, if ever, used in footwear. Stephanie translates all of these elements into a modern international fashion footwear context.

ABOUT STEPHANIE HENSLEY:
Stephanie Hensley’s design aesthetic is feminine and sensual, with subtle details. There is conflict in every shoe Stephanie designs, due to her fascination with contrast, and is represented through textures, materials, and concepts. Stephanie has lived and travelled throughout the world, gaining new inspiration each time the plane lands, which seamlessly emerges in her footwear designs.

Stephanie has over eight years of experience within the footwear industry, both in the US and China. The majority of her experience within the industry has been working for large American companies, but Stephanie has recently struck out on her own, employing her knowledge and connections from the footwear industry and compiling this with a Master’s Degree from Cordwainers to push her design sensibility into more intelligent design. This has resulted in a finely crafted and highly considered collection that has received media coverage and has been worn by celebrities including Estelle Rubio and Lady Gaga.