ARRAY gets ready to open its doors!

ARRAY Northampton is a pop-up shop ran exclusively by Fashion Marketing students at the University of Northampton.  Based in the town centre, the pop-up shop will sell innovative brands from local and upcoming designers, as well as fashion pieces created by current and alumni students.

The pop-up show has been set up as part of a second year project to set up and manage a 'live event'. All proceeds from the pop-up shop will be going to the graduate fashion show.

ARRAY Northampton will be opening its doors on 24th March 2014 until 29th March. Don't miss out!

Second Year Fashion Marketing Students Set to Open Pop-Up Shop in Northampton Town Centre

Northampton Chronicle & Echo, March 8th 2014

• by paul.lynch@northantsnews.co.uk

A ‘pop-up’ fashion shop is set to open in Northampton, as a team of students aims to bring a taste of the London retail scene to the town.

A group of 30 students on a fashion marketing course at the University of Northampton are due to take over an empty unit at the Market Walk shopping centre from Monday, March 24.

The business, which the team is calling Array, will keep its doors open for a week, selling clothing designed and made by the university’s fashion students alongside a host of other artwork and music from homegrown talent.

Second year student, Tilly–Jane Kidman, 21, of St Neots, Cambridgeshire, is handling the publicity for the new store.

She said: “We are required to set up a ‘live event’ as part of our course, but we wanted to do something a bit different, a little bit more innovative.

“Pop-up shops are becoming more and more popular 
in London, we wanted to 
bring that sort of thing to Northampton,” Tilly-Jane added.

The proceeds from the week-long shop, which all go towards the University of Northampton’s end-of-year catwalk fashion show.

But Tilly said the project also aimed to showcase the work of students on a number of courses.

“It won’t just be about clothing made by our graduates,” she said. “There will be art and jewellery on sale too, all by local artists and students, people making lino-prints and canvases.

“We think it’s going to go really well.

“As far as we know, nothing like this has been done in Northampton before.

“I really think local people will be interested to see what the shop is about. There will be a lot of mystery to begin with.”

In order to afford some of the start-up costs of Array, including rent of the Market Walk premises, the fashion marketing students are holding several fund-raising events.

Today, the team is holding a second hand sale at the Park Campus library foyer in Boughton Green Road, selling CDs, DVDs and clothes, all for £1. They are also hosting an eating competition at Momo bar, in Abington Street, on Tuesday, March 18. Entry is £3.

For more information about the Array pop-up shop, head to arrayuon.blogspot.co.uk. If you want to volunteer at the store for a week, email ferameliahartley@hotmail.co.uk

Tracking Northampton's Shoemaking Revival

Northampton's rich shoe history is no secret and the town's shoe-making past continues to gain recognition from around the world. The Wall Street Journal has today published an article which encompasses the variety of high-end Northamptonshire-based factories who continue to have global impact within the fashion industry. Northampton is proud of its heritage and our students and it is a real privilege for us to have this on our doorstep; we can quite literally take a walk in history's shoes! 

"I don't think the Northampton brand will ever go away...If you are Italian and you like shoes, you've heard of Northampton."  

Nicolas Cooper, The Wall Street Journal (6th March, 2014)

The Northampton Museum and Art Gallery

In Welcome Week, the first year Fashion Marketing students were given the opportunity to visit the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery to see for themselves the vast shoe collection that the museum holds as a testament to Northampton's shoe history. The students were also able to go inside the museum's shoe archive and handle shoes from centuries passed.


This year, the first year Fashion Marketing students have also benefited from a tannery tour at the University's Leather Centre and a valuable leather marketing talk from visiting Professor Mike Redwood, a specialist marketing consultant for the leather industry.





Visiting Professor Mike Redwood 

Every Shoe Tells A Story

As an introduction into BA Fashion Marketing I visited Northampton Museum and Art Gallery along with my course members and tutors. The aim of the day was to get an insight into the history of shoes across the globe as well as the shoes that originated from Northampton.

The range of individual shoes present in the museum, right from the first ever shoe through to shoes worn today, I felt there was a key component that linked them all together. Each shoe had a story to tell. The shoes spoke of gender, ethnicity, profession, politics and religion. It was fascinating.

One of my favourite shoes from the museum were Queen Victorias wedding shoes from the 1840's. The shoes were made of white satin trimmed with bands of ribbon. The shoes also had ribbon ties fastened around the ankles which held the shoes in place. The size of the shoe was so tiny it was amazing to see. I feel the way in which the museum presented the wedding shoes spoke so much volume in itself portraying an important moment in British history. The Queens boot makers Gundry and Son had made the shoes for the special occasion.

Not only did the Northampton Museum reveal a great deal on British history and it's shoes but also how beauty was portrayed through footwear and the extremes people would go to wear the perfect shoe. The museum revealed an ancient practice called foot binding. The practice would seem cruel and painful however it was a very popular method of attracting a man as they found small feet very beautiful in a woman. The process of foot binding began at an early age (4-7). They would break every toe other then the big toe and the foot would then be wrapped with binding cloth. This custom was rich with tradition and it was believed to give the family of the daughter a higher social status. 

The wedding shoes and the Chinese foot binding portray beauty in very different ways. Both of them tell a story. A moment in British history and a custom and lifestyle of Chinese women.

The way in which footwear has changed over time is fascinating and the way in which the museum documented this was fantastic. It enabled me to see these changes chronologically giving me a better understanding of the footwear and from which decade. I found the visit to the museum was so helpful in giving an understanding of how designers today have been inspired from shoes of the past. It has also given me a better understanding of the development of shoes over a long period of time.

Northampton shoe gallery visit..

 Visiting the shoe collection at the Northampton Museum and art gallery was most definitely an unforgettable and enlightening experience. As I stepped into the footwear wonderland, groovy sounds of the 80’s and 90’s infiltrated my eardrums. Perhaps this was a tool to engage visitors into the time machine of shoes and based on my individual journey this was successful. In the first room, shoes were categorized based on their cultural association, reinforcing the fact that shoes do not just perform a simple function but also have the ability to capture a memory; acting as an indication of time. The displays varied from loud clumpy union jack decorated platforms from the 90’s to calm and classy court shoes from the 50’s. Bold, chunky platforms, that would now arguably be seen as ugly and ‘over the top’ in today’s fashion trends were hugely evident. Nevertheless, this represented the loud cultural attitude of the people of the glamorous and groovy era of the 60’s.

The most thought provoking display was the one which is dedicated to the colour of red. An assortment of footwear: thigh length boots, leather buckled, silky ballet slippers etc.. were presented. This was an intriguing element of the exhibition as it proves that even if a shoe is a different style or fabric; its connotations can still be similarly communicated if its colour is the same- E.g. an expression of passion. 

A particular shoe that was highly eye-capturing was the ‘Super elevated Gillie shoe, 1999’ designed by Vivian Westwood. Its noticeable height highly suggests some discomfort with the purpose of this creation testing women to think is looking attractive and standing out amongst the crowd really worth the pain?

In the second room visited, the shoes presented were not just restricted to the 20^th/21^st century. It was an honour to see early slipper type shoes from the period of Ancient Egypt, Rome and China. But with the practicality of protecting feet from the weather and rough ground taken care of, style was eventually introduced as the factor of trend became relevant to society. ‘The first shoe fashion’; a beautifully velveted blue craft embroidered with silver thread was 3-Dimensionally displayed in a golden frame. This form of presentation fulfilled its purpose of reinforcing the striking shoe’s unattainability.

The exhibitors provided clever and engaging forms of interaction.  There was an area to try on a range of funky shoes which was highly amusing. The allowance to wear but not having the opportunity to buy the shoes made the content of this display that much exclusive and precious. Also provided was a selection of shoe fabric samples to feel, another attempt to entice the audience’s senses. A distinct room in the gallery contained an interactive touch device which contained memories and stories of Northampton Shoemakers from the 19^th/20^th century with their voices playing in the background. In addition, there was a range of old shoe making machines which specialised in each stage of production. Possibly this was to remind visitors that shoes are not just a beautiful appearance but there is a high level of labour which goes into their manufacture. These general sounds from the distant past which reminded me of the World war times contributed to the exhibition’s historical value.

The centre area of the room was dedicated to the contributions that present and past Northampton inhabitants have given to the shoe industry; specific photographs of relevant participants alongside historic items such as certificates of recognition. The fact that this particular content was in the middle is possible a connotation of the significance that the shoe industry has contributed to the status of Northampton and Vice Versa.

This exhibition differentiates from others that I have seen as it focuses on one specific item in the fashion industry- the main reason for its unexceptionably.  It was a privilege to see so many beautiful creations in such a small space. Overall, my visit to the Northampton shoe gallery has increased my awareness of the footwear industry. It has also reminded me that as well as being an accessory with simpler forms e.g. protection and decoration, on the other hand such a simple item can be a highly appreciated form of personal expression, landmark of time and a tool of reminiscence.

Amber Smitham's Blog 

On the 2nd October, I attended a tour into the archives of the Museum and Art Gallery to research the vast shoe collection on display. To any individual interested in the history of footwear, this was the ultimate location to discover items from over the centuries and across the globe, ranging from brogues to military boots to elaborately decorated Wellington boots even to 1930s fetish footwear. 11,000 pairs of shoes are kept inside this establishment, all containing their own piece of history and where they originated from.

Overall however, despite analysing many pairs from different eras I found myself fascinated with the trend of the 1920’s and in particular this pair of Black High Heeled Diamante Shoes which you can view below. My reasons for this are due to the exuberance of elegance and class, as well as combining liveliness, optimism and freedom from conformity. The shoemakers focussed hugely on attention to detail and influenced throughout the decade, which fabrics ranging from silk to gilded to reptile skin to tan leather. This was evident in each pair I found amongst the collection, demonstrating the normality of this trend. Obviously this was because of the outfits shifting in design, with dresses shortening, revealing the shoe itself, therefore becoming a major fashion statement in this era as shoes could not just be hidden underneath a long gown but needed to be selected with much more deliberation and care. In addition, the dance craze boomed by 1924, thus the introduction of ‘Mary Janes’, T-bar and cross-over straps and the 2 inch heel height became mass manufactured and a popular fashion statement was initiated. 1925 also gave way to international influences with the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris, which exhibited Greek, Asian and Egyptian motifs.

The component of this shoe that initially strikes me, however, is the jewelled heel, a very feminine, fun, and outgoing feature that would appear to have been worn for an upper-class party or evening event. It would have been the perfect height and with the heel also widening towards the bottom, plenty of support to dance in. It was also, to my surprise, a recurring trend as today’s fashion consists of this style. The second eye-catching element is the diamante buckle, highly fashionable in 1926 which stunningly stands out boldly against a classic black velvet fabric, which was actually a safe option to the bright, wild colours many women wore. Buckles were often known to be encrusted with semiprecious materials for instance pearls and sequins again to add the glamorous eye-catching effect. This was definitely a decade that sparked off the importance of adding that 'something special' to your outfit but ultimately allowed you to feel liberated from old fashion habits in order to express postivity in society.

Yes! Shoes!!!

                Yes! Shoes!!!

The Northampton museum of art and gallery is definitely a place to visit especially for the shoe fanatics. The showroom has a large large number of shoes for both sexes from each decade and its designer. The collection of shoes is over 10,000 to be precise 12,000. 

From the lot, the heel less shoe was the one that caught my eyes. Also known as the Lady Gaga's shoe today.

These heel less shoes has been around for some time now. Andre Perugia is said to be the founder  of these shoes.He made shoes for a famous designer known as Paul Poiret.

Perugia first experiment of these type of shoes was in 1937, it is an eye catcher. The shoe creates an illusion that the wearer is suspended in the mid air. The heel less shoe is also known as Trompe L'Oeil  or fool the eye shoes. A book he wrote "From Eve to Rita Hayworth" in which he said that the way to unveil a woman's personality was to study her feet. How amazing it is for a lady to walk in these shoes. This shoes tells you that fashion never fades it keeps coming back. Your feet does the talking on the runway and on the streets with these pair of shoes. 

The shoe tour was an amazing experience for me since I am a lover of shoes I did enjoy the tour and would recommend it to everyone just to have the experience of visiting the museum to view all the shoes from all over the world. You will never regret this experience.