about footwear

It was in the shoe museum in Weissenfels where I explored, on creaking floorboards in huge old halls, the history of shoes. Leather, fur, straw, and straps that were once tied around the feet were given closure methods, fits, functionality, decoration, symbolism, and status - all of this in its extremes.

And then there were these simple, red patented pumps from Sergio Rossi that sparked my passion for shoe design. I was blown away by their simplicity and beauty. Black and white photos showing cobblers in Budapest gave me the idea to go there and learn the craft.

But it became London for study, LOBB for bespoke shoemaking, and then Budapest when I started my first job as a shoe designer and developer for s`Oliver. They had a huge production site in Hungary where I enjoyed the atmosphere of door-on-door development with the departments of design, patternmaking, a workshop, and the production site.

Soon the development went to Taiwan and shortly thereafter China, where I then turned in huge amounts of designs on lasts and received masses of impressively crafted and almost perfect samples in return. 

Three years later I moved to Hamburg, from s`Oliver to Belmondo, from production in the Far East to Italy and Spain, from large product sites to small workshops, from synthetics to leather, and from a company under the roof of a design brand to a sales company - the house of Görtz.

After another three years, I switched to my own studio and became freelance. Tamaris became the largest customer I worked with, and a few ones next to it. I love the work from day one and watch the changes in the business as well as in my own. In recent years I've shifted from developing by drawings, 1:1 development, and the massive amount of designs I make per season, to more effort in presentation, software, detailing, and even prototyping. My passion remains on all sides -  the unique and handcrafted, as well as for the development of collection and designing- and I strive for all of this.