the wonderful world of Lane Marinho
The shoes of Lane Marinho are simply beautiful – beachy and artistic, elegant yet simple, made of absolute quality and completely original. But it’s not just the final product we’re in awe of, it’s the process by which they’re made.
Quite the opposite of pumping out product, Lane – from her São Paulo studio – creates, so it seems, one shoe at a time, working from a place of sincere passion, through each step of the design with care, exploring and researching until she has something she’s truly happy with. Having grown up in a family where the women learnt handmade work and crochet, embroidery and hand sewing were the norm, Lane’s world has always been full of ’colour and material’. “I started manipulating fabrics and threads at a very young age,” she says. “This is when my passion for threads, colours and shapes was born.” Though it wasn’t right away that she launched into her own business – first studying Graphic Design at University in Salvador de Bahia, then working for a jewellery designer and a number of big shoe companies in Brazil – when she did, it was this deep-set love for creating that came out. And that, no doubt, has made her so successful.
Based on experimentation and natural materials, on what she feels and what she thinks, the shoe line of Lane Marinho is one of a kind. It is elegant and exceptionally well-made, combines an array of textures and materials – rope, shells, fabric, and plays with the most beautiful colour palettes and fresh forms. Lane works slowly too, carefully sculpting on her own foot, working from her own drawings first, and pulls in all the things that inspire her – from nature and architecture to painting, artists like Matisse and Sonia Delaunay are some favourites.
It’s an impressive way of working, genuine and inspired, and the kind we greatly admire. But for Lane, this is how it has to be. For her, shoe making is more like poetry – a way to express how, as she says, “I see the world.”
Credits: Lane Marinho
