After studying in Northampton, the capital of shoemaking across the Channel, Helen Kirkum studied in London, at the Royal College of Art, from which she graduated in 2016. For her master’s project, she asked her relatives to entrust him with old pairs of sneakers. “Their reluctance was immediate. Even when they were smashed, ragged, they had trouble parting with them. I understood how great their sentimental value was,” she says.
For three years, she has piled up “tons of sneakers, often alone”, in a recycling warehouse. She and her team clean them, deconstruct them, recompose them like a puzzle, sew them, glue them. The finishes are provided in the factory so that the models thus recombined are portable. Handcrafted and made to measure, this work gives a patchwork effect and a second wind to sneakers at the end of their course.
His Kirkum label also offers to make a new pair from two to six used personal pairs. A service to order, which requires a good week of work per pair and costs at least 1,500 euros. Kirkum will launch, at the beginning of December, the most affordable Palimpsest (675 euros), its first basketball “upcycled” ready to wear.
