Georgina Goodman, Shoe Designer, London
Mar 7, 08:00 AM
Georgina said the best piece of advice she ever received was from the wise father of a friend. He told her ‘Don’t work too hard….because you never get that time back, that time that you could have spent with your family’. And that was when Georgina stopped working weekends!
Her favourite books when she was little were Alice in Wonderland – because of the fantasy aspect – and (of course) Cinderella!
Find out more about Georgina, and view her beautiful shoes, by visiting her website:
TRANSCRIPT
Introduction
Today we travel to London to meet shoe designer Georgina Goodman.
While she was working in magazines, Georgina realised that what she really wanted to do was to create. So she studied shoe design, completed a Masters in Footwear in 2001, then opened her flagship store the following year in the heart of London’s Mayfair area. Her successful shoe range now includes couture and ready to wear, as well as bags and other accessories. We caught up with Georgina at her store in London……..
**
Georgina Goodman – I sort of decided what I wanted to do late in life – I was a late developer.
I changed my career at the age of 33, 34, something like that and went back to college and I decided that I wanted to change my life but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And then I sort of looked at different things that I could do. I knew I wanted to do something creative, I wanted to make something and it was basically just a process of elimination and I saw that you could do a course in shoe design and that’s what I decided to do.
I’ve always worked in fashion, I’ve done design and styling, worked in magazines and freelance and done various other jobs as well…..which has given me…
I would say nothing you do is a waste of time because I think every job I’ve ever had is relevant to the point I am at now which I think is a really important thing.
I was talking to a student this morning about a career path and I think if you look at anyone’s career path, it’s an organic thing. You can’t really plan how you’re going to / what you’re going to do with the rest of your life because you don’t really know what going to feel like next year.
My career’s been very organic. I didn’t really ever decide, until I decided to go to college to make shoes, I didn’t ever decide what I wanted my career to be.
But when I did decide to go back to college it was very much ‘I want to go back to college and I want to open a shop’. So I had a very specific goal.
But I think that comes with age and when you’re 19, 20, deciding what you want to do with the rest of your life is a really, really big decision, and I actually don’t think personally I had the ability to make the decision at 20, 21. I think that’s an important point – I decided in my 30s what I wanted to do.
**
I’d never run a business before myself but I have a partner – I work with my husband BJ and he had run a business – he hasn’t ever run a shoe business. So I think if you have a really good business plan (I would say a really good, flexible business plan because a business plan has to be able to be flexible as you grow and emerge – evolve I mean), and we just learned on the hock really about the production of shoes.
We’re still learning. We take a lot of risks. We ask lots of questions of people who have been in business a long time. And we use our instincts as well about what we feel is good, what we feel is not good, and does that feel right for us as a company?
**
I really think there are lots of people who can help you out there and there are a lot of people who won’t tell you anything about business so you’ve really got to pick and choose the right people to ask.
Most people have got at least 5 people around them that run businesses and that they can ask.
And it’s really funny because actually business is all the same whatever you do -whether you are selling shoes, selling cigarettes, selling flowers -business is business and really you’ve just got to ask someone who has a successful business and they will have lots of advice and help – that’s what I think.
**
Question: So now running a business in shoe design in particular sounds very glamorous – what actually goes on behind the scenes?
GG – The fashion industry, the fashion business is particularly, sort of – it does have a glamour about it – glamour in the true sense of the word, it has this illusion, it’s packaged up in this illusion.
Of course no job is glamorous….nothing is glamorous – there are glamorous parts of it though- you do go to fashion parties, you do get invited to things where you see other people photographed in magazines – it’s a particularly glamorous world but then behind the scenes I spend most of my time in a factory, on planes, sleeping in very uncomfortable, cheap hotels in Italy – so there are lots of things that aren’t glamorous!
But actually there’s lots of really nice stuff as well so it weighs up – you do get to do great things where you dress up and have fun and drink champagne in posh restaurants but then you also spend lots of time in cold or really hot factories!
-
Question: As well as creating a business you’ve obviously also created a very strong brand – how did you come up with the brand strategy? (because there’s that ‘made in love’ tag that you put on every shoe isn’t there)
GG – We thought very carefully about everything to do with what we were setting up as a business before we even made the product – what the packaging would look like, how the shop would feel, the kind of environment we wanted to create.
And all those things that you can’t really have a product until you know where it is it’s going to sit. And that’s just good marketing. If you don’t have that, if you don’t have an ethos, if you don’t know what you believe in, then you can’t create an authentic product.
On the bottom of every single pair of shoes it has ‘made in love’- so it has the geographic location as well as the emotional location.
**
There isn’t really a typical day but I’m a mother so the first thing I’ll always do is get up very early and feed my child.I’ll either work from home – if I’m having a design day I’ll work from home, research on the internet, or normal things like answering calls, doing my emails.
When I come into the shop I’ll check in with everybody, make sure everyone’s OK, have team meetings.
I just think it’s about communication really – when I’m here it’s all about communicating with everybody, making sure that everyone is OK – checking in without checking up really!
We’ve got quite strict hours, 9-6, and unless it’s something really important we don’t stay beyond 6 o’clock. Because I think that what can happen (especially in the fashion business) is there’s sort of like a slave driving kind of mentality, where everyone’s working really late, there’s a fear led organisation where people are frightened that they don’t want to go home. Well here everyone’s packing up their bags and putting their lipstick on at 10 to 6!
**
Question: What are the best bits about what you do?GG – My job, my role in the company is creative director.
The best part for me is when I’ve created something – whether it be a brochure or a shoe or – and I see the result. It’s really scary because sometimes I’m like ‘oh God I don’t want to see that’– and it’s like the big unveiling and it’s like ahhh.
And sometimes things that you really think are going to be great are sometimes a disappointment and things that you weren’t so excited about are really fantastic.
I love that part – I fear it and I love it so that’s a really exciting part.
Another nice part is when I am working in the shop and a customer comes in and buys a pair of shoes and they just really love their shoes, and it’s a really great feeling. Because that is the end user coming in and actually walking off with the shoes and having that experience.
The worst part of my job is that I do travel a lot, I’m away from my family.
**
Question: Has there been a particular highlight for you?
GG – Last year I was nominated for ‘Accessories Designer of the Year’ – I didn’t win but for me that was a real big highlight because the other people who were nominated had both been in the industry for a really long time
(interviewer – and you would only have had 2 years at that stage)Yeah so that was really really exciting.
And of course to be nominated for something is a really big honour. Of course you really want to win, so it was a bit of a disappointment not to win, but to have been nominated it was really fantastic. So that was my career highlight.
And I remember the day also that we opened the shop and sitting in the shop and just thinking ‘this is my shop’, this is the culmination of 5 years of college and a year setting up the shop, so 6 years of dreaming about something and then it actually happened.
And I think that’s a really interesting thing, to be able to have a dream and then to actually make it happen.
And now that I’ve done this I know I could do anything. I could do anything I set my mind to. I don’t have any fear about doing anything. Whereas 10 years ago I would have said ‘oh no I can’t do that’, but now, I believe I can do anything.
**
Question: Do you have any tips for other young women who are wanting to pursue a dream? What would your advice be?GG – I would really check in with yourself and just say ‘why do I want to do it?’
Because I think, all through my 20s, everything I wanted to do – to be honest – was because I wanted to be famous. Then, when I actually stopped trying to be famous, I started working really hard at doing something I wanted to do, now I’ve become famous.
Question: What about your style inspiration – where do you get that from?
GG – My style used to come from wanting to shock, wanting to be shocking, people to look at me. This whole focus of ‘if they look at me, then I’ll feel great about myself’
Actually as I got older I thought, actually it’s not about other people thinking that you’re great, it’s about do you feel great about yourself’ That’s calmed down as I’ve got older.
But I still like to express my individuality through my clothes and I think they are very important tools.
**
I think when you’re 17 you can’t know what you want to do with the rest of your life.I think people will want you to make a decision – your parents, your teachers and I really don’t think, unless you absolutely know… you can set off on something and it might be the completely wrong thing for you.
When I was at school I didn’t have one qualification, I didn’t get one qualification at school. I’m not saying you don’t have to try at school and don’t worry, but actually I didn’t have any, ...I had one exam.
I think there’s such a lot of emphasis put on: ‘if you don’t pass your exams you’re not going to be able to go to university. If you can’t go to university then your whole life is over…’ I think that’s really really damaging.
And I think it’s really kids who put it on themselves, or young people put that pressure on themselves. I don’t necessarily think it’s always their parents.
But I actually think that it doesn’t matter when you qualify, as long as you do qualify.
I think it’s really important to do the right thing at the right time.
Like as I say I was in my 30s when I went back to college.
**
Our careers are evolving like a tree – grow a branch here, a branch there – and that’s what makes us interesting! – END –by Natalie LodeDon’t work too hard? If only that could be possible in real life. I’m hoping working too hard is just a temporary thing. But fair play to Georgina, she really seems to have hit the right balance all her life!
Anthony | May 7, 11:31 AM | #That is so cool that she said in her 30s she worked out what to do. very inspiring to see how she has been so focussed and achieved a lot in quite a short time
Maria | May 15, 09:13 PM | #those shoes look gorgeous. :) i like thatshe says nothingyou do is a waste so you can learn something from every job. good outlook.
Bridget | May 17, 06:36 AM | #commenting closed for this article