EXCLUSIVE - Julian Hakes and the 'mojito' shoe....

Last week I went along to the Schuh SS 13 press preview to see what's in store for this coming summer. I won't talk much about that now as a blog is coming on on visit. Whilst I was there there was one pair of shoes that stopped me in my tracks and that was the mojito shoe by Julian Hakes .. Check them out and the designers story below.


The Julian Hakes Story

Award winning London based architect Julian Hakes first released early concept images of the design for a new ladies fashion footwear concept on design blogwww.dezeen.com

Later that evening Julian received a message from the editor of Dezeen to say it had gone viral' and he should put his name into Google. Julian did this and to his amazement got halfway through 'Ha....' before Google prompted him to 'buy Julian Hakes designed footwear?'

Within hours the story was snapped up by American blog www.gizmodo.com and registered in excess of 100,000 hits and streams of comments. Over that same weekend Hakes received press enquiries from agencies right around the globe.

On the Monday after the story broke Julian received a call from the office of a well known female ex-model in New York requesting 2 pairs in her size for her show. At this stage the Hakes 'mojito' shoe was in initial sketch model and prototype form and they realised that they needed to make this concept into a reality.

As a result and keen to see how the design worked on a foot, bloggers and fashion followers started themselves to imagine how this sculptural design could work, sparking a series of self made on line videos, photomontages and sketches.

Almost 2 years in development Hakes has been working to refine every delicate, sculptural curve and twist to make this a very light, comfortable and elegant design.

Hakes have provided footwear collections at London Fashion Week for Swedish fashion designer Ann Sofie Back Atelier and London designer Ada Zanditon. Julian's first collection has since been published widely including Forbes, Vogue Italy and Elle.

Hakes has now formed a joint venture with an international manufacturer and distributor responsible for some of the world's top fashion footwear brands.

Hakes are busy making this design a reality and expect to have the first collection 'The Hakes Mojito' ready for the summer party season.

Julian Hakes is proud to be an approved brand for Swarovski Elements and he has also recently been awarded the Drapers award for "Best footwear designer of the year 2012".


The mojito shoe by Julian Hakes is exclusively available now at SCHUH.CO.UK