All Hail to Camilla Skovgaard

The name Camilla Skovgaard may be foreign to shoe lovers in this part of the world but just ask the avid shoenistas of London and New York and they can simply tell you that Camilla Skovgaard shoes are like gifts for their feet falling straightway from the fashion heaven.

A no stranger to the glossy pages of Vogue, Harpers' BAZAAR, W and Elle, Camilla Skovgaard's creation have garnered lots of praises from fashion critics and fans for aesthetic fluid-edged style combined with high-quality shoe making.

Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Camilla's fashion foray began as early as in her late teens when she moved to the romantic Paris for couture training. According to her bio, the move was made after Erik Mortensen, former Creative Director of Parisian couture and fashion purveyor Pierre Balmain had written her encouraging words after she sent him her sketches.

When she reached the age of 20, a French-owned fashion house in Dubai brought her to the Gulf State, which is rich with oil. Her job on that time was to design fashion for the wives and daughters of the wealthy oil tycoon Arabian sheikhs.

While working with her Arabian clients, she noticed that these well-to-do Arabian ladies have a strong penchant on exclusive and beautiful designer clothes and accessories but unfortunately, their feet are adorned with shoes that sometimes can be best described as shabby and not convincing enough for them to the tell the world that they are real Chanel buyers.

In the year 2000, she left her Dubai gig after seven years and moved to a city that's closer to home - London. There, she enrolled in a BA (Hons.) degrees in shoe making at Cordwainers Shoe College, which also boasts the remarkable Malaysian-born shoemaker to the stars, Datuk Jimmy Choo as one of its celebrated alma mater.

While studying for her MA at London's Royal College of Art (she graduated in 2006), Camilla started to foray in the shoemaking line and made contacts with high-end Italian shoe manufacturers. To date, Camilla also has been collaborating with renowned designers such as Ben de Lisi, Matthew Williamson, Emilio Pucci, and Basso and Brooke. Upon her graduation from Royal College of Art, renowned American high-end retailer Saks Fifth Avenue was impressed by the graduation collection and bought them.

At the same time, Camilla had successfully garnered accolades and recognition as a talented shoe designer and they include the prestigious likes of Queen Elizabeth Scholar Award for excellence in British Craftsmanship, Miss Selfridges design project RCA, Young Designer of the Season Award’, Footwear UK, Birmingham, and Best Shoe Design’, World City Fashion, Museum of London and Asprey & Garrad.

Apart from that, Camilla's superb shoes have been widely recognized by medias from all over the world and her shoes are often featured on the 'must have' or 'must buy' pages of The Times, W Korea, Madame Figaro Korea, Vogue Pelle Italy, and WWD just to name a few. Best of all, Camilla and her works were also featured in The Measure, published by London College of Fashion 2007, and edited by Louise Clarke.

For the upcoming fall/winter 2008-09, Camilla drew her inspiration from the patterns of star-crossed weave and interlacing. Developing a recognizable and intelligence signature of 'elegance cool', her primary concern for the collection is more on the form and materials, as well as designs rather than decoration.

Moreover, she also aims to provide a collection of shoes that offers both value and style that will continue to resonate after short-lived fashion gimmicks have disappeared into oblivion. Starting with the open interlacing against the nudity of the foot, the journey ensues with a rock and roll/grunge element which is then translated into hardware, high tech leathers.

To make the elements more appealing and alive, Camilla uses hair to cover the feet, representing a nod to the dark horse in us all. Speaking about hair, in her recent email to me, Camilla revealed that the hair that she used to decorate her shoes were humans and not animals!

Though it sparked quite a controversy among shoe fans around the world, this marvelous and gravity-defying shoe collection is set to spark greater attention from fashionistas who are daring to beat the odds from head to toe this fall/winter.

Camilla Skovgaard's Fall/Winter 2008 collection will be available at selected retailers across the globe later this year. Apart from luxury shoe retailers and departmental stores, Camilla Skovgaard's shoe collection can be purchased via her online store.

*Photos courtesy of Camilla Skovgaard.

Camilla Skovgaard at Harvey Nichols London - 109 - 125 Knightsbridge, London, SW1X 7RJ