The Ethical Shoe Designer Inspired by Traditional African Footwear
It’s not often that you hear “shoes” and “female empowerment”
discussed in tandem, but that’s the subject of conversation at the
eclectic South Street Seaport storefront where Aurora James sits perched
on an ottoman. “I think it was Christian Louboutin who said he created
shoes to lift women up and empower them,” says James, the founder and
creative director of Brother Vellies footwear and a newly minted CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist. “It’s something I’ve always thought about."
Raised outside of Toronto, James traveled extensively and
developed an early interest in indigenous apparel, collecting the winter
mukluks and clogs her mother would give her. It was when she lived in
Jamaica for a few years, though, that "my eyes were opened to the
diaspora in Africa," she says. Her Read More