LFW Day 5: Bally and Central Saint Martin's

In 2009, Bally tasked fifteen students, selected by Louise Wilson from both the 1^st and 2^nd year of Central St Martins MA fashion design course to submit women’s shoe designs for Bally.

The brief was to create designs that have high editorial values, and a strong luxury feel, keeping in mind Bally’s heritage for exquisite craftsmanship and highest quality leathers. Jointly Central Saint Martins and Bally selected five out of the fifteen entrants to have their work developed at Bally’s workshops in Florence, Italy, and Caslano, Switzerland. The chosen students work specifically focused on creating innovative heel shapes, each choosing to create styles that accentuate a different part of the foot, making for a wonderfully diverse group of footwear.

The five students, Estefani Cortes Harker, William Hendry, Frida Hofslagare, Stephanie Turner, and Charles Youssef, were taken to the last and heel manufacturers in Italy, to have the foundations of their designs realized into three dimensions. They then went on to Bally’s Swiss shoe factories, to work with the craftsmen at the modelleria beginning the prototype process.

Four revisions and some months later Bally can present the results of the exciting collaboration. Bally and Central Saint Martins intend to continue collaborating for the foreseeable future, ultimately some or part of the student’s designs will be incorporated into future Bally collections.