Shoes Have Names project collaborators

Designer Biographies

A diverse range of shoe designers/artists who are highly skilled in their craft were invited to work with individuals who faced homelessness to understand their story and their future hopes after working with Shelter. The resulting shoes represent the 'positive steps forward' made by individuals and families. Here are the talented designers collaborating on this project.

Kobi Levi

Design and shoes have been Kobi Levi's passion since his childhood in Tel Aviv, Israel. His first shoe designs were created during his high school days. They were made from cardboard back then. Following his passion, in 2001 he graduated from Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design, Jerusalem. Since his graduation Kobi worked as a freelance footwear designer. During this time Kobi learned the trade secrets of shoe development and craftsmanship.

Kobi has received worldwide success and attention for his unique shoe designs including an appearance on "The View" Show, worn by Whoopi Goldberg and the use of his Double Boot in Lady Gaga's “Born this Way” music video. In the studio he creates, develops and produces limited editions from his designs. All pairs are made by hand from high-quality materials and shipped all over the world.

Elisabeth Thorsen

Elisabeth is a Norwegian shoemaker and artist inspired by fairy tales and nature, she also sings and creates performances as part of her wider creative practice. Approaching her footwear projects as if she were making a piece of art, her shoes go beyond the functional.

Key to the crafting of her shoes is experimenting with unusual material not commonly used for shoemaking, she has recycled many unusual materials including: furniture, pencils, carpets, ice, sugar and sports tape. Her shoes have an aesthetic expression, which are pleasing to the eye as well as being challenging and sometimes hard to fully grasp. Her previous work has been exhibited in a diverse range of countries and exhibitions worldwide including: Kunsthalle Budapest, Kunsthaus Wien, Germany, Krakow, Abu Dhabi and Oslo

Kristina Walsh

Creating accessories, prosthetic limbs, and installations, Kristina’s work is underpinned with research into psychology and social theories; her aesthetic is otherworldly characterized by sensual forms. Kristina's work engineers new experiences and emotional introspection and bodily explorations. Her work explores how design can enhance the human experience; aiming to impact human behaviour by cultivating new relationships with one’s self and others. Kristina's work is radical in using sculptural bodily extensions to initiate discussions surrounding social and cultural perspectives of the body. Kristina is alumni of Sarabande Foundation her work formed part of State of Fashion exhibition 2018. Her prosthetics are currently on show as part of Body Control at Museum Arnhem.

Liz Ciokajlo

Liz Ciokajlo is a footwear designer, educator and researcher bringing years of experience working as a product, furniture and fashion accessories designer to her practice and company OUROWNSKIN. The aim of the work is to bring a fresh look at how materials and technologies can underpin and reshape fashion footwear at the most emotive levels. The focus of the work is bio and natural materials, 3D print processes, the body and how this will alter footwear constructions; seeing this combination as futuristic and decisively female.

Liz has worked on innovation projects with footwear companies, on research teams and exhibits internationally, MoMA - Museum of Modern Art New York (Items: Is Fashion Modern), 2019 Venice Triennial (Broken Nature) and The Design Museum London (shortlisted for 2018 Beazley Designs of the Year and currently in Moving to Mars).

Tabitha Ringwood

Tabitha Ringwood is a bespoke footwear designer, obsessed by the history of objects that have lived, firmly believing that an object’s value is persistently enhanced over time. Her shoes explore the sense of touch through a variety of recycled materials and textures, encouraging engagement in order to allow for constant evolution of the relationship between the wearer and what is worn. With an unprecedented look and feel, her tactile shoes are the result of a complex, entirely handcrafted manufacturing process and extensive research. The enigmatic nature of her shoes gives each pair its own user-defined impact – it is the culmination of moral values (using offcuts and reclaimed materials) combined with a vision that has matured over the years. Tabitha's bespoke made to order shoes are sold at concept store 50ml.

Daniel Charkow 

Daniel Charkow is an emerging shoemaker and designer who combines art and technology with traditional shoe making techniques. His appreciation for hand-tooling and sustainability are key features in his designs as seen in his iconic Chair Shoe made from a discarded chair found on the side of the road.

Inspired by Lady Gaga’s fierce fashion and bold choices, at age twelve Daniel created his first shoe. Falling in love with the art, Daniel pursued shoemaking and has interned with the likes of Steve Madden, Ron White, and Aldo. Recently, Daniel’s designs were shown twice at London Fashion Week in collaboration with graduate designers. Daniel is currently studying shoe design at London College of Fashion

Dr Ellen Sampson

Ellen Sampson is an artist and material culture researcher whose work explores the relationships between clothing and bodily experience, both in museums and archives and in everyday life. Using film, photography, and writing, she examines the ways that garments become records of lived experience: how people and the things they wear become entwined. She is Currently Senior Vice Chancellor’s Fellow at Northumbria University.

Sampson has a PhD from the Royal College of Art, London and was 2018/19 Polaire Weissman fellow at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and 2019/20 Professorial Fellow at University for the Creative Arts.

Caroline Groves 

British label Caroline Groves is dedicated to crafting beautiful women’s shoes that blur the lines between art, fashion and fantasy, while remaining true to traditional techniques. Founder Caroline has enjoyed over 20 years in the trade, and established her eponymous bespoke footwear company in 2003. She has since built up an international following, recently attracting investment for further development of the company. Caroline Groves’ shoes are hand-sculpted, wearable collector’s items, and are the ultimate expression of what leather can do in its various forms. Her passion for, and knowledge of leatherwork, needlecraft and textiles informs the nature of her work and designs, fusing a diverse range of influences into a style that is completely her own.

Jana Zornik

A fashion artist merging craft and artistic sensibility into unique body-related objects. Jana uses found objects from ordinary life, translating them into extraordinary crafted artefacts that carry new identities, memories and emotional states. Originally from Slovenia Jana has won numerous design awards including: ITS Swatch Award 2016.

Jana is an ex studio resident at The Lee Alexander McQueen Foundation. Her work has been exhibited at numerous prestigious exhibitions and venues including: Lidewij Edelkoort's Talent 2009 at Designhuise Eindhoven, Museum of Design and Architecture Ljubljana, Museum of Decorative Arts Buenos Aires and London YKK Showroom. During her Masters in Fashion Artefacts at LCF she received the Proctor and Gamble “Better Lives” and Fashion Matters Awards.

Jackie Leggett

The designer/maker behind Jackie Loves Clogs, Jackie Leggett reworks the traditional British clog, pushing the designs forward by making them colourful and contemporary. Her work pays homage to her Great Grandfather; a clog maker in Maryport Cumbria. Growing up around her father’s shoe factory, Jackie developed a passion for footwear and completed a BA in Footwear design from Leicester Polytechnic in 1992. Since graduating Jackie has collaborated with numerous independent shops and fellow designers. She is currently engaged in bringing her modern handmade clogs to a new audience whilst spotlighting and enhancing the heritage craft of clog making. Jackie's work has shown at many of the most prestigious craft shows in the UK where she has won many awards including 'makers mark' from Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen.

Behind the scenes bringing this together

Jo Cope

Jo Cope is a conceptual fashion designer and London Collage of Fashion Masters alumni; best know for her extreme length shoes and use of the colour red. Her work is a cross between; art, performance, fashion and craft, created to be visually consumed in art gallery environments rejecting fashions only role as commercial commodity. Jo Cope has a unique perspective on shoes; believing they can be an important social tool for communicating human centred issues and in this project a tool for positively uniting communities and story telling. Jo works as a fashion educator in a number of universities in the UK and exhibits worldwide in prestigious venues; her work is currently on display at MAD: Museum of Decorative Arts Paris.

“I believe fashion can play an evolving role in society. This project uses shoes as an empathetic vessel, bringing together a highly talented community of designers each with unique handcraft skills to create shoes which engage with and communicate real life stories of people who have faced homelessness. The aim is to use fashion as a positive vehicle to create greater public awareness for important social issues such as the amazing work done by Shelter ”

Jo Cope

Hattie Lamb, Boutique by Shelter

Hattie Lamb is the Boutique by Shelter Shop Manager at the Coal Drop's Yard, King's Cross; working with Shelter for the past year and a half she has helped them to open their flagship Boutique in 2019. She is passionate about pushing the boundaries of the charity shop as a retail space and has co-presented with the artist and designer Wayne Hemingway on the changing role of charity shops in communities. She aims to show that charity shops have amazing potential beyond the traditional and champions sustainability, community and fashion alongside working for Shelter.

'This is truly a unique project which shows how fashion and art can be used to amplify Shelter's important messages. I'm particularly excited about the innovative way in which we are using our Charity Boutique space and how this collaboration showcases the power and importance that Shelter Charity Shop's have in shouting about Shelter's work.' Hattie Lamb, Boutique by Shelter Community Shop Manager