Luxury shoe designer Lucette Holland opens the door to her bright, second-floor studio in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. There are remnants of a dinner party hosted for an artist the previous night. Across a corner of a long table and on the floor are samples of packaging made from recycled paper. On open shelves along one of the walls are multiple pairs of upcycled shoes handmade in Senegal.
Not one pair of shoes is anything like the other. Nor like anything I’ve seen before. Red leather kitten heals with recycled bicycle tyre rubber soles. Pretty grey damask ballet pumps with white beaded bows and black rubber soles. Furry slip-ons with rubber tyre straps. Sneakers made from single or multiple and distinct materials: patterned, patent, matt and textured. All are artisanal luxury shoes. Each pair is unique, and “nothing is replicable,” Lucette says.
Lucette studied shoemaking in London and for two decades she has worked for brands including Balenciaga, Céline (under Phoebe Philo), Burberry (under Daniel Lee), and Calvin Klein (under Veronica Leoni). She also spent eight years at the helm of Yeezy in partnership with adidas. Then, three years ago, the 39-year-old designer set out to combine her interest in problem solving with her love for making things, especially shoes. Lucette launched CeeCee, a revolutionary brand challenging mainstream luxury’s systemic problems including waste and unethical labour practices.
Each pair of shoes is unique. Image: Supplied
Materials are found first, and then shoes are designed. Image: Supplied
“I just love shoes and love making things, and it’s my job as a designer to solve problems. I’m outraged by what I see problem and how very little is done. I know I can’t solve it all. The heavy lifting needs to be done by big companies who’ve created the problem in the first place,” says Lucette. Along with designing and making shoes from the global fashion system’s waste, Lucette set out to create a slow, decentralised business and production system that follows a reasonable work cadence.
At the time Lucette was living in Los Angeles when a design colleague Moustapha Diagne suggested she visit Senegal where shoemaking is very popular. While there, she met Christina Diaw who owns a shoe and handbag brand in Dakar. Christina went on to assist Lucette in setting up a local production system for upcycled shoes.
At first Christina thought Lucette was “absolutely mad” and said that they can’t make shoes out of waste materials. There is “a huge community of artisans making leather sandals and shoes, but nobody is making shoes in these styles with these materials.”
Soles are made from bicycle tyres. Image: Supplied
Materials are sourced at second-hand markets in Dakar. Image: Supplied
There are excellent shoemakers in Senegal. Eventually Christina and Lucette found artisans and shoemakers in Dakar who were interested in the project. The current team includes Ndiasse Seye, Naett Mbaye and Goora Mbaye. Lucette says, “They don’t need me. They don’t need this project. White Westerners come in with ideas about this, that and the other…. it’s a story as old as time and it’s not a good one. Because nobody invited me here, I have to be mindful and respectful and at the same time grow a business that earns people’s trust.”
CeeCee materials are hand-picked in Senegalese second-hand markets. “Every material is different,” Lucette says. Heels, buckles and other trims are deadstock. These are mostly from China and Italy. “We buy bags of what is available. When it’s gone, it’s gone,” says Lucette. The leather is deadstock from Italian tanneries. “I recognised the tanneries. The leather is end-of-line or rejected colours.” The soles are made from recycled bicycle tyres from various bike shops and retailers throughout Dakar. The laces were donated to her by an Italian sneaker company. For health reasons, the sneaker insoles are bought new – the only virgin element.
There are many shoemakers working in Senegal, but now many who were working with upcycled materials. Image: Supplied
With CeeCee, Lucette was interested to see how far she could push the design, “especially heels”. On an industrial footwear production line, you have at least 30 steps and each of these has a different machine. “We do almost all of this by hand. We don’t use any machines except for a sewing machine and a sanding machine. I’ve been designing shoes for 20 years for factory production. I’ve never seen shoes like this – made without machines.”
While handmaking shoes is not unusual in Senegal, what complicates the production is that CeeCee uses waste material. “Footwear is tricky. There is a lot of engineering that goes into a foot movement and creating footwear is riskier than creating a piece of clothing or a bag. There are strict rules of what you can and can’t do. And if it just doesn’t work, it just doesn’t work. With this project, we work backward. Usually, you work from a design. With this project, we’re working backwards from the materials we find, and then we design what seems possible.”
possible.”
High heels require careful engineering. Image: Supplied
There are strict rules of what you can and can’t do. Image: Supplied
Every material is different. Image: Supplied
CeeCee, a B-Corp, has a business plan built around the B Corp requirements. It was certified before any shoes was produced. The business model is designed to be for an adaptable system that can be implemented in different places and with different teams. “As a white French woman, I have to show up, be consistent, be respectful and learn to adapt. I adapted how I am used to working to how people in Senegal work. I also wanted to develop a system that could bring this to life in a way that was replicable and sustainable, not only in terms of materials, but sustainable in terms of place. There’s a lot of stopping and pivoting and thinking about what the most pleasant and reasonable way is of working for everyone.”
For example, it could be implemented using materials that are easily available in other countries where Lucette might want to set up shoe production. She says, “It’s like an adaptogenic mushroom model.”
It’s not perfect, she says. “The perfect thing would be to make nothing. But from an artistic point of view, it’s a celebration of craft. And with the industry in the state it is I wanted to create something hopeful.”
I tried on a few pairs. Are they comfortable? Very. And, they are flattering.
CeeCee is a celebration of craft, and of circular design. Image: Supplied