Designing Shoes Around Women's Lives

Why Every Design Decision Begins With a Simple Question

When people ask where a new collection begins, they often expect the answer to be a trend forecast, a sketchbook or a mood board.

Sometimes they're right.

I love discovering new colours, exploring beautiful leathers and watching silhouettes evolve from season to season. Fashion has always been part of what inspires me, and I don't believe comfortable shoes should ever stop being exciting.

But inspiration and decision making aren't quite the same thing.

A beautiful leather might catch my eye. A particular colour might spark an idea. A new silhouette might inspire an entirely new collection. Yet before any of those ideas become a Cocorose shoe, they all pass through exactly the same filter.

Will this work in women's lives?

That question has guided every collection we've created since the very beginning.

It was there when I invented the world's first foldable shoe because I wanted to solve a problem I was experiencing myself. It was there when customers began wearing their foldable shoes throughout the day, leading me to rethink what a foldable shoe could become and eventually create an everyday leather ballet flat that happened to fold when needed. It was there when we introduced trainers to the collection, and it continues to shape every new colourway and every new style we develop today.

The collections have evolved, but the question hasn't.

Looking Beyond the Shoe

Before I invented the world's first foldable shoe, I was absolutely organising part of my life around my shoes. Every morning, I squeezed a bulky spare pair into my handbag before catching the train into London because I knew I would need them before the day was over. Like so many women, I was making decisions based on what was on my feet.

One of the reasons I created Cocorose was to remove that compromise.

I wanted women to enjoy beautiful, contemporary shoes without constantly having to think about them. Shoes that fitted around their lives, rather than requiring their lives to fit around their shoes.

That has become one of the guiding principles behind every collection we create.

Our customers lead wonderfully varied lives. Some spend their days in offices, hospitals or classrooms. Others run businesses, travel the world, work in retail, perform on stage, care for their families or enjoy retirement. Many do several of those things over the course of a single week.

Their lives are all different, but what connects them is that they all want shoes they can rely on. Shoes that feel as good at the end of the day as they did at the beginning. Shoes they instinctively reach for because they trust them. They trust they'll look stylish, feel comfortable and support them wherever the day takes them. I think that trust is something every brand has to earn, and it's something we've worked hard to build over the years.

That doesn't mean every shoe has to be understated. Some of my favourite designs are among our boldest. The Moorgate leopard and yellow trainers, our Hoxton trainers with stars, hearts, rainbows and studs, metallic leathers and statement finishes all prove that comfort and personality can happily exist together.

Beautiful shoes matter. The challenge is making sure they continue to justify their place long after the excitement of buying them has passed.

Every Decision Has to Earn Its Place

Designing around women's lives doesn't mean ignoring fashion. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Colours, silhouettes and a deeper understanding of how women wear their shoes are constantly evolving, and every new collection reflects that.

I spend hours visiting leather markets to discover materials that immediately spark ideas for future collections. I'll come back with armfuls of swatches, cutting smaller pieces from them and pinning them to my collection notes while I begin exploring how different colours and textures might work together.

I recently visited one of our leather suppliers to develop our summer leather; a soft beige coloured base hand woven with delicate strands of gold to create our Clapham Beige & Gold leather ballet flats.

Weeks later, the leather samples arrived, followed by the prototypes.

These moments are some of the most enjoyable parts of creating a new collection, but they are only the beginning.

Once the prototypes arrive, the next question is always exactly the same.

How do they actually feel?

I Design and Test, So You Don't Have To

This is probably the part of my job that people see the least.

Every prototype is worn properly. Sometimes for days, sometimes for weeks and occasionally for months.

There is simply no substitute for living in a pair of shoes.

No amount of technical expertise can replace wearing them through ordinary life because if they don't feel right and wear right, they don't get launched.

When I was developing the Moorgate trainer, the width wasn't quite right.

The adjustment we eventually made was just two millimetres on the last.

It sounds incredibly small, yet it transformed how the trainer felt on the foot.

Those are exactly the kinds of details that matter because I know they will affect someone's experience every time they wear that shoe.

When I started designing and testing the Hoxton collection, I was pregnant with my first child. Like many women, I experienced the changes that pregnancy can bring to your feet. They became more sensitive, more prone to swelling and, by the end of the day, often felt very different to how they had that morning. It gave me another perspective from which to test the collection because I wasn't only thinking about how the trainers felt on a typical day, but how they performed as my body changed too. If you've ever experienced those changes yourself, you'll know just how important supportive, comfortable footwear becomes. I explore this in more detail in my article, Why Your Trainers Feel Tight by Evening: Daily Foot Expansion, Pregnancy Swelling & Hormonal Changes.

After my children were born, those same Hoxton trainers became my default shoes for long walks with the buggy. I knew I could spend hours on my feet, pound the pavements and still feel comfortable while looking put together. Those early years of motherhood also reinforced something I'd been thinking about for a long time: when you're balancing work, family and everything else life brings, dependable products become incredibly valuable because they effortlessly remove one less thing so you don't need to think about it. I explore those experiences further in The Realities of Balancing Work and Childcare, Modern Motherhood, Flexible Working and the Invisible Load.

It was another reminder that the best shoes don't just look good in the mirror. They earn your trust through everyday life.

Perhaps that's why I have always believed my customers shouldn't have to test our shoes.

That's my job.

Listening Is Part of the Design

One of the greatest advantages of being an independent business is that we love having conversations with our customers and learning from them.

They tell us how they live in their shoes.

Over the years, customers began telling me they weren't simply carrying their foldable shoes for emergencies anymore. They were wearing them throughout the day because they found them so comfortable. That observation eventually led me to ask a different question.

What if a foldable shoe could become an exceptional everyday ballet flat without losing the thoughtful portability that inspired it in the first place?

That journey became The Everyday Shoe That Folds.

Our customers had also been asking us to create trainers for years. At the same time, trainer silhouettes were evolving and becoming an increasingly important part of women's wardrobes. It felt like the right moment to bring our Beautiful Comfort philosophy to an entirely new category.

Sometimes those conversations are incredibly specific.

Jackie recently contacted me asking whether we'd ever create a silver trainer she could wear to her daughter's summer wedding.

The timing couldn't have been better.

Several silver leather swatches were already pinned to my collection notes, waiting for the right opportunity. Jackie's email became the final piece of the puzzle, leading to the Hoxton Silver with Silver Stars.

Then there are the stories I could never have anticipated.

Ann, who spends much of her time cruising the world, once told me she feels "safe" wearing her Cocorose shoes on deck.

BAFTA winning actress Lupita Nyong'o described changing into her Cocorose foldable shoes during flights because they are so practical and make travelling easier and more comfortable.

Every story reminds me that once a pair of shoes leaves our studio, it begins a life of its own.

Designing Shoes Around Women's Lives

People often ask what makes Cocorose different. For me, the answer isn't found in one particular shoe, but in the question we ask before every collection is finished.

Will this genuinely work in women's lives?

Sometimes the answer comes from a colour.

Sometimes from a conversation.

Sometimes from changing a width by two millimetres.

Sometimes from wearing a prototype through pregnancy.

Sometimes from listening to customers whose experiences challenge the way I think.

Every decision matters because every decision affects somebody else's day.

Ultimately, that's what designing shoes around women's lives means to me.

Not designing for one particular lifestyle, but designing thoughtfully for the wonderfully varied lives women already lead.

I realise that while our collections have changed enormously, the question at the heart of every design hasn't.

How can we create shoes that women genuinely love to wear because they make life that little bit easier, without ever asking them to compromise on style?

It's a simple question, but it's one that continues to guide every collection we create.

That's what Beautiful Comfort means to me, and it's a philosophy I explored further in my Founder Essay, The Shoes That Let You Forget About Your Feet.