The designer who's morphing African footwear into high fashion
Kanye West was there to see Brother Vellies, a line of shoes based on traditional African styles, make its debut at New York Fashion Week. Founder Aurora James tells Robin Givhan how and why she got started
Aurora James was raised in a small town near Toronto and spent much of her youth reading National Geographic. “We always had a subscription,” she says. “It was big entertainment for me growing up.”
Her mother was not the glamorous sort who wore Vogue-approved stilettos and slingbacks; instead, she had a prodigious collection of mukluks and clogs. There is little in James’ background that would suggest that she would be a shoe designer and one of the 10 finalists in this year’s CFDA-Vogue Fashion Fund competition.
But in 2013, James launched Brother Vellies, a line of shoes based on traditional African styles. They hit a sweet spot in pricing, aesthetics, romantic anthropology and high-minded global production. As the spring 2016 runway shows began in New York last week, James was in the thick of the action.
Over nine days, 200 brands are expected to present collections. Those include American behemoths such as Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors, struggling mass market label J. Crew, young guns Prabal Gurung and Jason Wu, as well as the venerable Givenchy, the Paris-based luxury label that’s parachuting into New York for a season. James mounted her first formal presentation on Thursday. As a Fashion Fund finalist – and self-funded designer – the stakes will be high.
Twitter reaction to the Brother Vellies show
