Liam Fahy's light-up shoe
London Fashion Week is set to start at the end of the week and a highly-stylised shoe by one of the fashion world's brightest new names will be on show.
Shoe designer Liam Fahy, whose luxury ladies footwear label claims to make on average the most expensive shoes in the world, is creating a one-off design fitted with crystal lights to display at the prestigious fashion week.
He will display his collection at LFW’s Somerset House from Friday 15 February to Tuesday 19 after winning one of the British Fashion Council’s NEWGEN awards.
Since its inception, previous NEWGEN winners have included Alexander McQueen, Boudicca, Matthew Williamson, Julien Macdonald, and more recently, Christopher Kane, Marios Schwab, Richard Nicoll, Erdem, Mary Katrantzou and Meadham Kirchhoff.
“Every now and then we do a special project,” explained Liam. “This one has dozens of flashing crystal lights on it and, due to its complexity, was partly assembled in our factory in Venice and partly with De Montfort University in Leicester, as it required microchips and a small team of highly specialist technicians who can’t be found anywhere else.”
Liam graduated from De Montfort University in 2006 and his former Footwear course leader Kevin Guildford put him in contact with technical services manager Manbir Sambhi and digital design engineer Dilip Chauhan from the Faculty of Technology, plus computing lecturer Brian Bramer, who created the microchips and circuitry for the shoe.
Kevin said: “They have had to make a custom-made circuit board to fit Liam’s design. The fact he’s making it here is really good news for us. We have a strong connection with Liam. He has also come in to speak to our students and he mentors some of our postgraduates who want to get into that field.
“When our students leave here we don’t forget about them. They feel connected to the course and are free to contact us for help. Of course, it also works the other way round – they give us things, such as materials and mentoring.
“On our course, people such as Liam get used to using all the different faculties in their designs and if they want to use wood, or plastics for example, they can turn to our colleagues in other departments.”
Liam, whose shoes are made from exotic materials such as python, crocodile or lizard skin and Swarovski crystals, only launched his company about a year ago. “It took more than a year to find a factory that had everything we needed. When it comes to footwear you have to have huge capital just to start up, to get all the right tooling, people and a good PR team, etc.
“It’s great to have a highly respected institution like the BFC recognise and support our label. We’re really looking forward to showing the new collection.”
Born in Zimbabwe, his African heritage often influences his styles. He lived for a while on a small snake farm and spent a year living with the Tonga Tribe in the remote valleys of the Zambezi River before enrolling at the renowned De Montfort University course. Liam graduated with several prestigious design awards under his belt and worked for luxury and sport brands before setting his sights on luxury women’s footwear.
Each piece is embellished with a nickel sole signature that requires as much time to produce as the entire upper of a normal shoe.
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