As a model who sometimes averages up to four shows a day, Hanne Gaby Odiele is no stranger to footwear mishaps. “During Fashion Week, I had a shoe that looked like it was about to break but I still wore it even though I had back-to-back shows,“ says Odiele of one memorable experience. “Of course, it broke, so I had to hop from show to show on one shoe and a half!” Lesson learned. Now, the in-demand face doesn’t have to worry about limping with a spontaneously broken heel—Odiele has teamed up with shoe designer Matt Bernson to release a collection of asphalt-friendly, sole-soothing shoes. And the “comfort” factor doesn’t mean granny-style orthopedic footgear; each design has that much-lensed classic Odiele quirk that has made her a street style staple. Think memory-foam crafted sandals inspired by sky-high platforms from the seventies, or basket-woven loafers with a paint-speckled cork sole that, according to Odiele, look like “you’ve stepped in paint and kept walking.”
Odiele was fully involved in the design process, spending more than a year working on the collection with Bernson. “There’s the stereotype that a model will just doing something to stick their name on it and leave you to do all of the heavy lifting, but it was not like that. She would send me fifteen emails a day!” says Bernson. And for both Bernson and Odiele, one of the best moments of working together was the on-the-town lookbook shoot with Odiele’s friends Tilda Lindstam, Charlotte Free, and Xiao Wen Ju, shot by street style photographer Tommy Ton. “To see the finalized product and watch actual people walking in them, that was fun!” says Odiele. “Besides, creating your own shoe is a girl’s dream, too.”
