Q&A: TRACEY NEULS

The owner of the eponymous footwear brand on moving across the road, channelling emotion into design, and enjoying the ageless scent of plasticene

Interview: Clare Finney

Portrait: Holly Whittaker

After 22 years in the same tiny shop on Marylebone Lane, you’ve moved… just over the road. How big does the move feel?

It’s funny, even though we’re just opposite the old shop, you do look out the window and see people looking at the old, closed shop and assuming we’re closed. I think ‘turn around! We’re just here!’ and sometimes they do – but sometimes people just accept what’s in front of them. I love being here, though. I feel invigorated, being on the other side of the street. I love the newness of it. Our hands were a bit tied in the old space. We weren’t able to do all the artist collaborations and events we wanted, but now we’ve got a small bit of space to play with and crisp clean walls. When we opened here we had a party: my daughter’s 18, and she played with her band, there were people spilling out onto the street and after two years of pandemics and closures it did feel brilliant. I feel positive about the place, and I feel positive about Marylebone

How has business changed in the two decades you’ve been here?

From a supply chain point of view, everything is more difficult. With Brexit, the pandemic, the war and so on – it’s really difficult. We have six-month lead times, and at the moment suppliers are coming back four months in and saying, “We can’t produce this.” You have to be really agile, and keep your eyes open. What hasn’t changed is our lovely customers. The charm of Marylebone, of Marylebone women hasn’t changed; in fact, I think finding things more difficult maybe makes us all more open.

How have all these seismic events on the national and international stage influenced your design and collection – if at all?

Whenever I design a collection, it’s emotive. It’s got nothing to do with the trends of the season, though it may tap into or explain how we feel. This winter, I felt like there really had to be a visible handmade touch to our collection. I wanted to reiterate that what we’re doing is personal and tangible; that it involves blood, sweat and tears. When you have big companies constantly taking over smaller companies, it’s hard sometimes to know who is honest about their craft. It’s rare to have a designer still making with their own hands – so I torched all the heels, personally, to darken them. It felt personal, for me and the customer. The summer collection is different,

Kima

Jessica Warch and Sidney Neuhaus, the duo behind Kimaï, on lab-grown diamonds and speaking directly to women

Interview: Ellie Costigan

Portrait: Adam Kang

Jess: We wanted to bring a modern touch to the fine jewellery market. We wanted transparency and sustainability, but without trading off on quality or design. That is the foundation of Kimaï.

Jess: The fine jewellery industry is still talking to us in the exact same way as they were talking to our greatgrandparents. It makes a product for women but still targets men to buy it. We talk to women directly. You don’t need anybody else to buy you jewellery.

Sid: We would always prioritise the beauty of the stone rather than the carat. For us, beauty matters much more than size.

Jess: Our diamonds are all lab-grown. We often compare lab-grown diamonds to water in a freezer: it’s the same result as you find in nature but created in a completely different environment. They grow in the though still emotional. It’s bright and colourful – three colours at least on a single shoe, like loafers with lavender, green and black running through them. I thought we should take every opportunity we could to be bright and cheery, because things are heavy right now.

How do you stay relevant, as a fashion designer? How do you stay in it for the long haul? What is relevant? Is it making sure we provide shoes that are timeless? Is it designing something individual and wearable, with the personality of our customers in mind? A lot of the trends right now are for gigantic heels or platforms which, even if they are vegan and sustainable, will be thrown out in a year or less. I love people walking into our shop wearing the same shoes they were wearing 10 years ago. I think what comes out of drilling into the zeitgeist of women, and really seeking to understand them, has to be more relevant than riffing off the latest exhibition or catwalk. To be original, I think you need to think inwards, about the interior, not out at trends; not being a machine dictating what people should wear in what colours at what height and shape. I like that in my shop, my customers dictate what they wear. You have to try my shoes on, see if they take on the curve of your legs, see if they complement your skin tone. That’s so much a part of it. It’s not off the shelf.

Has your method of designing changed at all?

No, I am fairly old school. If I’m creating a new shape, I still use plasticene. There’s something about the smell of it; smells don’t age, do they? It feels so familiar. I still start by sketching. I always have three Moleskins on the go – I’m even taking them on holiday with me. There’s was really important for us to cut them out and be in direct contact with our suppliers. something that’s very emotional and sentimental, but it should be worn, not left sleeping in a jewellery box forever. exact same way as they’d grow under the earth, but in a more controlled way.

Sid: A lot of couples come into the store together to choose an engagement ring, or the woman will come in on her own. Things have evolved: it’s no longer the case that the man is the one who can afford to buy a piece of jewellery: women are independent and part of every decision. It’s also a significant purchase, and women really know what they want. She wants something that lets her personality come through.

Sid: Everything we do is based on organic shapes. Our style isn’t geometrical. Our jewellery is delicate and refined. It feels like part of your own skin.

Jess: We never say we are 100 per cent sustainable or recycled. We’re really just trying to do better and take a step forward.

Sid: We grew up within the diamond industry, so we already had a good network of craftsmen in the diamond district in Antwerp. In the jewellery business, you build those relationships by word of mouth. You make business with a handshake.

Jess: Lab-grown diamonds are chemically and physically identical to mined ones. Even a diamond trader can’t tell them apart. But they come without all the issues around blood diamonds, child labour, mining impact, and shipping from all over the world. The problem is, it’s often very hard to track where diamonds come from, because there are so many middlemen. It

Sid: Bespoke engagement rings are a big part of our business, and we work very closely with the client to make sure it’s a ring that’s unique to them. Although we have a small range of engagement rings that are readily available, you can still pick your stone, colour, gold and so on.

Sid: We believe in circularity. Jewellery should last a lifetime and be passed down to the next generation. If somebody inherits a piece of jewellery or gets divorced, for example, we can reuse the gold or stones and build a new ring to bring it back to life. Jewellery should be

Sid: Jess and I really complement each other. She looks after the supplier side of things, and I look after the creative.

Jess: The education side of what we do is really important. When we launched four years ago, lab-grown diamonds were a very new concept. Even today, there are people who haven’t heard about them, so it’s our role to educate the customers on the impact, on what it means and what it is – it’s not a fake diamond. That’s why we wanted a physical store, so people can come in, ask questions, and really see that it’s legit.

KIMAÏ

24 Chiltern Street, W1U 7QE kimai.com something so luxurious about sitting with your sketch book and allowing yourself the freedom to use it. After that, the ideas go onto the computer, and I’ll use Illustrator and Photoshop and the full gamut. But the original inspiration is still fingertip design. With clothing accounting for about 8-10 per cent of global carbon emissions, and nearly 20 per cent of wastewater, the environment has become a key area of concern for anyone in the industry with a conscience. Of course, Tracey Neuls has always had durability and ethical craftsmanship as cornerstones, but how do these concerns continue to shape you? The amount of landfill fashion creates is horrific – particularly shoes. I’m not naming and shaming, but some brands just never break down. I am not saying we are the perfect sustainable company by any means, but I think creating shoes that you will have an emotional attachment to and can wear for years is important. You aren’t going to wear my shoes one year and then the next year think they are so last season, because you will connect with them on a different level. It might sound basic, but there aren’t many people making clothes like this; shaping the moulds by hand, sourcing leather soles from small tanneries, creating something that, by befriending your cobbler, you can look after for decades. My daughter loves vintage shops – not for the brands, but because she can’t believe the quality of the clothes that she finds in them. I’d be so happy to find my shoes in a vintage shop eventually. I think sustainable fashion isn’t just about materials. It’s about choosing well and representing yourself originally. We need to buy less and buy better, we know that, and I think that means making emotional purchases that have a lasting feeling – not buying something because it’s on social media, or because a Kardashian wore it. If you love something, truly, you will still love it in 10 years’ time.

TRACEY NEULS

74-78 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2PW traceyneuls.com