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Footwear Research Network

@footwearresearchnetwork

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An interdisciplinary space for academics and professionals with an interest in footwear and identity to share research, connect and collaborate.

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So it turns out cutting up shoes in good company is as enjoyable as making them into something new!

It’s been so lovely to welcome so many amazing volunteers to the @this.is.not.a.shoe studio at @abbotsfordconvent over the last couple of days to help us prepare for our activation at the @acruxcollective Melbourne Fashion Week ‘Stitched Up’ event at the @themotleywherehaus on the 21st of October.

We love what the ACRUX team are achieving with @amnestyaustralia, which aligns perfectly with our mission to use creativity and connection to inspire socially, culturally and ecologically sustainable fashion and footwear practices.

Last few tickets via @acruxcollective

@penniejagiello @footwearresearchnetwork @sherlock_alexandra @a4annie @lilbeanzine @alex.keynes #thisisnotashoe taken in Abbotsford Convent by @footwearresearchnetwork

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The Social Lives of Shoes has been nominated for a Signal Award for Thought Leadership!

Just the nomination alone is a wonderful acknowledgement of our hard work and a huge boost as we work on the second series, but a win would help us immensely. If you value what we do, please vote for us and share widely with your networks!

Link in the @footwearresearchnetwork bio

#sociallivesofshoes @dr_costume1 @sherlock_alexandra @penniejagiello @rmituniversity by @footwearresearchnetwork

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A huge day today! After de-installing the window at RMIT’s Brunswick Campus, the @this.is.not.a.shoe project has found a permanent home at the @abbotsfordconvent

Studio 6 of the Sacred Heart Courtyard is next door to @penniejagiello ‘s existing studio. This historic space couldn’t be a more fitting location for a project that seeks to revitalise the stories, and celebrate the lives and imperfections of decommissioned shoes.

We can’t wait to share our plans for the next phase of @this.is.not.a.shoe

Watch this space for more information and an official opening date!

@footwearresearchnetwork #thisisnotashoe #materiallifecycles #materialsinflow #closingtheloop taken in Abbotsford Convent by @footwearresearchnetwork

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What a privilege it was to sit down and talk with retired celebrity reporter Fran Weinstein, whose memoir ‘Tortured Soles: High Heels, Low Expectations and the Hollywood Gossip Mill’ tells the story of a remarkable career through her collection of more than 200 designer shoes.

Fran's stories from the red carpet open into a deep conversation about femininity across the life course, the ethics of the gossip industry, women's rights, the mental health toll of living our lives on show, and how our shoes carry our memories.

Head to the @footwearresearchnetwork website to see lots more of Fran’s shoes and the stories and memories behind them.

This is the final episode of our current series. Thank you so much for listening. Emily and Alex will be back in the new year with lots more fascinating perspectives on shoes.

If you have enjoyed this series and want to support independent content, please donate to our GoFundMe (link in bio). Your support will help us become a registered social enterprise, build a financially sustainable future, and deliver many more valuable insights, projects and research.

Have a listen, link in bio.

#SocialLivesOfShoes #FootwearResearchNetwork #ShoesAndIdentity #CelebrityCulture #Podcast @dr_costume1 @sherlock_alexandra @franweinstein by @footwearresearchnetwork

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@penniejagiello and @sherlock_alexandra had a wonderful day last week displaying their @this.is.not.a.shoe footwear treasures in the foyer window of building 513 on the Brunswick Campus at @rmituniversity

The display accompanies their 2-hour footwear deconstruction workshop on the 31st August, transforming meaningful but unused shoes into a flat-lay artwork to take home. Participants also leave with instructions for how to transform their second shoe as a wearable accessory.

Taking a meaningful shoe apart may sound confronting, but participants come away with a new understanding and respect for the things we put on our feet without a second thought. The flat lay can be a beautiful way to commemorate a loved shoe with everything it stands for. Through the telling of the stories each pair holds, participants also leave with new friends and a sense of empathy for one another.

If you have a special pair that you no longer wear but are too wrecked or meaningful to donate, and you’re interested in building new skills, material literacy, and a creative pathway to sustainable and responsible design and consumption, this one’s for you!

Still not sure?
Ask yourself - what would happen to them otherwise?
(Maybe also bring a backup pair, just in case)

Tickets via the This is Not A Shoe website (events and workshops) - link in Bio.

Tickets also available via @placelabrmit

@rmituniversity @bfd_rmit @rmitvefashion @rmitfashionenterprise @penniejagiello @sherlock_alexandra @footwearresearchnetwork taken in RMIT Brunswick Campus by @footwearresearchnetwork

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Another valuable contribution for the @footwearresearchnetwork by Dr Emily Brayshaw (@dr_costume1 ), this time exploring a shipwreck dress, knitted trainers and the stories our materials carry.

Emily traces how researchers at @aaltouniversity turned 300 year old wood from a sunken 17th century ship into yarn and knitted it into a dress, then asks what that means for footwear.

From @santoni_seamless 3D knitting machines to @veja recycled polyester uppers and @ecco x @spinnova_fibre recycled leather waste, and even a sneaker knitted from dog fur, she looks at how knitting has become one of the most exciting spaces in sustainable footwear design, and why knowing the real biography of our materials might be more powerful than any recycling claim.

We’d love to see a shipwreck shoe. What stories do your shoes’ materials tell?

Read the full article, link in bio. by @footwearresearchnetwork

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New episode of #TheSocialLivesOfShoes:
More Stitches, Less Riches: Reconnecting with Our Shoes, Each Other and the Planet with Wendy Ward @thatwendyward

We’ve known about fashion’s waste problem for decades, and strategies to address it have mostly involved guilt and shame. Wendy Ward, a PhD candidate at @sheffhallamuni , takes a completely different approach. Her practice-based research, Enduring Fashion, encourages people to spend time with the items they wear. From wardrobe audits, break-up letters to garments, and ink prints taken from clothes headed for the bin, to drawings and rubbings of garments, and a French knot for every wear (three years and counting).

What comes out of these enjoyable activities isn’t obligation. It’s attachment, pride and community. People arrive at her workshops with garments they thought were worthless and leave realising what those clothes mean to them.

Why this matters for footwear: the @fashionforgood Closing the Footwear Loop report found that 24% of shoes that owners classified as non-rewearable had no physical damage. They were simply unpaired, dirty, or unsellable. That’s a problem of attention and attachment, not materials. Wendy’s methods speak directly to this issue, and for brands, they point towards experience, community, and storytelling as valuable commercial territory as we shift to alternative models of value and a return to the heart of what fashion is all about - expressing yourself and finding your tribe.

It was such a pleasure to speak with Wendy about what her research might mean for footwear, a category still lagging in sustainability discussions.

Full episode, transcript, images, chapters and links at the @footwearresearchnetwork

🔗 in bio
Images courtesy of @thatwendyward

@thatwendyward @fashionforgood @sheffhallamuni @this.is.not.a.shoe @dr_costume1 @sherlock_alexandra @penniejagiello

#bravenewworld #stitchesnotriches #FootwearResearchNetwork #ThisIsNotAShoe by @footwearresearchnetwork

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Why do we dress the dead, and why do we so often insist on shoes for bodies that will never walk again? 🥿

In the latest episode of The Social Lives of Shoes, Dr Alexandra Sherlock sits down with long-time friend Dr Pia Interlandi, founder of @garmentsforthegrave and Associate Professor of Creative Practice at @curtinuniversity , whose extraordinary practice interlaces fashion, funerals and forensics.

It’s a long, philosophical and at times deeply moving conversation, from dressing her own grandfather for burial, to a year spent exhuming decomposition research, to what happened when she dissolved a pair of Ugg boots, @adidasoriginals Superstars and @clarksshoes school shoes in original research using water cremation. The leather dissolved completely, leaving only the synthetic and cellulosic parts behind, and with them, real questions for how we think about circularity and the ends of shoes’ lives.

It’s a reminder that death has a lot to teach us about materials, principles for true circularity, letting go, and designing things that aren’t meant to last forever 🖤

⚠️ Please note: this episode contains detailed discussion of death, dying and dressing the dead.

🎧 Listen now, link in bio, or wherever you get your podcasts.

#TheSocialLivesOfShoes #FootwearResearchNetwork #CircularEconomy #GarmentsForTheGrave @dr_costume1 @sherlock_alexandra @rmituniversity @bfd_rmit @alluviumwatercremations @kathrynmhigh @this.is.not.a.shoe by @footwearresearchnetwork

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