Le Shouvre
Custom Hand-Painted Shoe Designs
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This pair of espadrilles were commissioned to match some rather fetching swimming trunks; needless to say they’ll stand out nicely on the beach in the Floridian sunshine, where they’re being sent. -
Good Lord, it has been a long time since Le Shouvre was updated. It’s all bubbling under the surface these days, so there’s not much finalised content to share. However, I have slowly been keeping up the shoe-painting…… so slowly, actually, that this pair took me about a month to finish, due to a boatload of other commitments. Whoops! But they’re done now, and looking… well, old? The point was to make a pair of slip-ons that resemble an old pair of lace-ups; an optical illusion of sorts. As such, they are one of the few pairs that will actually look better after they’ve been worn for a few weeks, and have accumulated a sufficient amount of dirt and grime. Not for everyone, I know.
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Not the most original name, I know, but hey at least it’s informative.Yet again I was granted sweet, beautiful artistic liberty, so yet again I employed a design idea that I’d had waiting in the wings for a while. Geometry once again becomes the centrepiece, as I explored the relationship between triangles, trapezoids, and isometric cubes.
This sort of design usually lends itself to computer-aided precision; exact angles and perfectly straight lines and such. But I opted for a more deliberate presentation of a hand-drawn effort, and furthered the overall feel by incorporating a strong fade across both shoes. In addition, the progression of the design seems somewhat out of place, almost as if the shoes are being worn on the wrong feet. Take that, computer!
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This pair were inspired by the unmistakable language of written music. I chose to stick to a black/white combination, given the look of most sheet music, and went for a straight-forward display on the back warping into a more abstract display of familiar symbols on the front. -
For this pair, I was given creative liberty, on the condition that I use bright colours. As if I wouldn’t!I’ve wanted to use a tree as a centre piece for a while now, and eager to include the Le Shouvre isometric cubes (as usual), I ended up producing an odd combination of abstract shapes and plantlife. The shoes are somewhat congested, but the colours create enough of a contrast that your eyes can hopefully absorb it all.
Plus, if cubes grew on trees like fruit, I’d totally get my hands on one.
More pics here (the pictures are unfortunately slightly over-exposed, and the bright sunlight may make the colours look a little more faded than they really are…)
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Part two of the Peruvian installment, this pair of espadrilles are a bit more refined than their older sisters.The brief was simple – sun and moon – so I kept the design simple, too. A pair of natural espadrilles, in which the canvas itself acts as a blanket of cloud. Occasionally, poking through the cloud cover, are glimpses of a clear sky – a big bright sun burning one on shoe, and a crescent moon glittering amongst the stars on another.
Once again, I deliberately left large areas of the canvas blank, in order to keep the feel of the shoes as soft and light as possible – they are espadrilles, after all – so the end result is a compromise between design and form… which sounds pretty sophisticated for a pair of espadrilles, doesn’t it?
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This week a considerable chunk of my time was spent customizing two pairs of shoes, that this weekend will travel the length of the Atlantic, all the way to Peru.The first pair, somewhat-inappropriately called “Swipes” (it sounded right, even though none of the word’s definitions really fit the design), are bright and eye-catching; swirls of primary colours contrasting with patches of the original brilliant white canvas. They are intended for the upcoming Peruvian summer – months spent sitting by the beach, the great Pacific rollers crashing into the shore beyond your wonderfully playful espadrilles, Pisco Sour in hand, and a tasty cebiche in your stomach. Ahhh, I can see it now…
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What better way to improve a pair of espadrilles than by adding some exotic animals?These animals know better than to come out in the light of day, though. Here they can be observed in their natural habitats (well, some may argue that giraffes don’t venture into jungles, but this one certainly has), going about their business. Tigers are sneaky characters; only the infamous striped tail gives away his hiding spot. A large, colourful parrot perches in the trees, a snake slithers its way through the branches, and a toucan watches intently as a giraffe rummages through the treetops in search of some lunch. And just when least expected, a crocodile emerges from its watery habitat to snap its jaws at something – we can only guess what…
Given the size of the espadrilles, there wasn’t a huge amount of space to work with, and wanting to leave ample parts of the canvas unpainted, this seemed a better alternative to cramming all the animals in full onto the shoes.
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This week has been a somewhat congested one here at Le Shouvre HQ; while trying to keep focused on behind-the-scenes activity, as well as dedicating a fair amount of time to outside obligations, not much actual shoe painting was done. Nevertheless, earlier today I found myself with a couple of hours on my hands, and an excess pair of espadrilles that happened to be in my size. So I undertook a Le Shouvre first: an entirely improvised shoe design.Given that this was a first for me, and as with the nature of anything improvised, the risk of the end product being a little rough-around-the-edges was quite high. But it was fun to be working from start to finish under such time constraints – a properly commissioned pair can sometimes take me roughly 8-10 hours. Instead, I went straight to painting on the shoes, and made up the design as I went along.
The final product, I feel, reflects the time constraints. It’s not the most imaginative nor cleanest design by any stretch, but given that I only plan on wearing these espadrilles around the pool, I’m happy for them to be loud and a little over-the-top. I also played with the logo a bit by applying a curly, twirly font, which I think suits the design.
This is definitely not something I would do for a normal commission (unless specifically asked, of course!), but it was fun to try it out, given that I knew no one other than myself was going to be wearing the finished product. I hope I can try this sort of thing again… although it’s an expensive form of improvisation!
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The lovely people at POP were enthusiastic about having a pair made to honour their magazine, so I wanted to create a design that was as colourful and vibrant as the publication itself. I opted to stick to primary colours, but work in light pastel shades (after all, it is July). The background on the front of the shoe fades from a pasty white-yellow through to a light salmon pink, whereas at the back a soft blue is punctuated by strips of light red.The two main motifs in the design are the POP logo itself, which is built around the Escher or “Impossible” Triangle, and the isometric cubes that often feature in my other designs. The latter morphs into the former, which then becomes part of the POP logo.
