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Showing posts with label shoe designer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shoe designer. Show all posts
Thursday, July 1, 2010
I'm delighted to announce, after 5 long days of labor, I have a new baby on board - Carol Gillott.com was born this week with the superb help of Mat Rosa.
It's my chance to show you a few of the things I've done...
Did I mention in passing that I painted chef's jackets. Merci Roger Verge.
And I've been a party sketcher...
Not a bad profession as professions go...
My new website does not show that I designed shoes...
Or wrote travel books way back...
Or created a watercolor medium either...
My career has been nothing if not varied. But it hasn't always been a bowl of cerises/cherries...
There have been a few bumps on the road, like the time I tripped in Montalcino, while gazing up at grapes and broke my ankle...
Are you getting a headache yet from all the careers?
Ever the one to make lemonade out of lemons, in 1981 I was shot by a mugger...
That led to a very successful career in pharmaceutical adverising illustration. Go figure...
These days I'm a blogger/macaron-painter and very happy to be so.
Thank you Joan MacSweeny for buying the macaron shoes on Zazzle. Fred, the cat loves them too. I better get a pair...
It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings as they say. and let me know what you think.
BONJOUR PBers and a BIG MERCI to MAT!!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
OK, so I didn't actually go inside Christian Louboutin on 19 rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau 75001, I just stalked the outside like crazy. Maybe next time I'll get up the courage...
He opened his shop in 1992, right at the end of this 19th century arcade, Galerie Vero-Dodat.
I didn't know Louboutin apprenticed backstage at the Follies Bergère as a teenager. "That’s where I learned that shoes are all about posture and proportion.”
Early years Louboutin created shoes for YSL, Chanel, Maud Frizon...
His instantly recognizable red soles were the result of grabbing a bottle of nail polish from a nearby assistant. “It didn’t take me long to learn from my customers that the red soles were very popular with men,” Christian Louboutin said laughing.
His shoes are like works of art, like sculpture...
As is everything inside his shop like this FAB chaise...
Does Jennifer Lopez have the same wall of Louboutins at home?
Bear loved this crazy mural of a marauding bear...
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
OK, another chapter on "MY BRILLIANT CAREER"...On a shoe designing trip to Spain, I took a vacation to Morocco.
I fell in love with the souks and bazaars, took loads of pictures
and dreamt of doing a coffee table book on them. Ever practical, I figured I'd better do a European flea market guide first. Since the shoe company was sending me to London, Paris, and Rome, I piggy-backed flea market research onto the shoe trip. The Mediterranean "book" would have to wait.First day out in London's Bermondsey Market, I met a free-lance dealer, Graham, who became my flea market research assistant. What did I know of antiques. The page shown is from a pull-out section for Mademoiselle magazine. Having no typewriter, I hand printed everything...
Grossett & Dunlap saw the Mademoiselle article and asked me to make it into a book. Off I went to design shoes and drag Graham along to explain silver marks and dealer tips in all the flea markets at the same time. 
Here's a spread from the Paris Puce section..
Next I approached Mademoiselle on the souks and bazaars idea. They were thrilled! And a book contract followed from Grosset. I'd earned my street creds and this time I got comped by all the individual tourist offices to do guest travelwriting in their countries - all expenses paid! I got comped to Turkey, Greece, Tunisia, Isreal, Iran. I joined a group of travel agents to eat my fill of pistachios and caviar. Pas mal.
I had no "research assistant" for this project and mostly used my imagination to come up with stories on the flea markets of Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey, Israel, Greece, Yugoslavia, Iran.
The book went to "blues" (the first publishing test run used for correcting errors etc.) But the 1979 Iran hostage crisis put the kybosh on the Med book and it was shelved.
I went on to do a US flea market guide. First for Mademoiselle and then a 3rd book for Grosset. But problems surfaced. I don't like to drive and it became all writing and little drawing. 
I did articles for Art News and others. Even an illustrated column for a travel magazine. I accumulated a lot of antique junk in the process. But time to move on to another career. To be cont. Thursday, July 12, 2007
You may have noticed I like to throw in the odd picture of shoes here and there in a post...
And I'm not just talking chocolate shoes either...
The Paris METRO is a good place to steal shoe shots...
Or just window shopping late at night...
I used to design shoes and part of the job description
was keeping your eyes open at all times for new trends and details...
A friend heard of a design job on the Bowery,
so I ran to PRATT and took a one-week pattern making course.
This shoe put me on the front of Footwear News :)
I found an Indian embroidered pillowcase with mirrors
and decided it would make a good espadrille...
When the orders piled in, the problem was
where to find more of the same Indian pillowcases :(
Six months later I met someone at the tennis club
who asked me if I'd like to design shoes in Europe!
Pretty soon I was attending shoe shows in London, Paris, Bologna,
and always keeping my eyes open for new trends and details...
I found a vintage man's oxford in London
and designed a "Fred Astair" group around it...
The shoe company had offices in Florence
(with a palazzo on the Arno) and Alicante, Spain,
so it was a constant diet of pasta, paella and shoes...
Tough huh?
I'm still keeping my eyes open for new trends and details,
and I spotted this sign in a Marais shoe shop last trip for
"BRONX" shoes Who'da thunk it?
Not shoes, but still Paris feet, at the 2006 art show in
the Jardins du Luxembourg...
And I'm not just talking chocolate shoes either...
The Paris METRO is a good place to steal shoe shots...
Or just window shopping late at night...
I used to design shoes and part of the job description was keeping your eyes open at all times for new trends and details...
A friend heard of a design job on the Bowery,
so I ran to PRATT and took a one-week pattern making course.
This shoe put me on the front of Footwear News :)
I found an Indian embroidered pillowcase with mirrors
and decided it would make a good espadrille...
When the orders piled in, the problem was
where to find more of the same Indian pillowcases :(
Six months later I met someone at the tennis club who asked me if I'd like to design shoes in Europe!
Pretty soon I was attending shoe shows in London, Paris, Bologna,
and always keeping my eyes open for new trends and details...
I found a vintage man's oxford in London
and designed a "Fred Astair" group around it...
The shoe company had offices in Florence (with a palazzo on the Arno) and Alicante, Spain,
so it was a constant diet of pasta, paella and shoes...
Tough huh?
I'm still keeping my eyes open for new trends and details, and I spotted this sign in a Marais shoe shop last trip for
"BRONX" shoes Who'da thunk it?
Not shoes, but still Paris feet, at the 2006 art show inthe Jardins du Luxembourg...
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