Eugenia Neave’s Hand Made Shoes: In the Adelaide City region of South Australia

Visit the Silver Shop in Hindmarsh Square and you’ll find local and hand made work by South Australian jewellers and designers. But the sense of fashion extends from head to toe with Eugenia Neave's funky shoe designs taking pride of place in the shop established by her late father in 1982.

Eugenia explains:

“I did it for work experience when I was at school and really loved the lifestyle of the people that I was working with.”

Eugenia remembers her first creation - a paper shoe with a sole made from a Cornflake packet - she was only seven yours old. She’s moved up in the world since then with stunning handmade creations that offer the perfect blend of function and form.

We caught up with Eugenia in her workshop and retail outlet on Brighton Road at Hove. She was working on another commission - a pair of long-legged boots. She was ‘skiving’ or slicing off layers of vegetable tanned leather which form the soft but firm heel stiffener for a customer who couldn’t find the right fit in shoe shops. It’s a laborious process but Eugenia reckons she wouldn't have it any other way.

“It takes (me) about fifteen to twenty minutes and it takes about five seconds using a big machine worth two million dollars.”

Eugenia admits she's the Imelda Marcos of shoes - she has fifty pairs at home. And some are works of art that reflect her passion for the history of shoes.

“Between 500 and 900 AD fashion started coming in. People thought about style and what they looked like,” Eugenia said as she showed us a pair of her hand-made shoes strapped to a thick detachable sole.

“Something like this would have been very popular in the 1500s I think. They are called Pulain. This thing is called a pattern and they used to wear a pattern with a pulain outdoors. The pattern would protect their shoes in the mud and they'd flick their pattern off when they went indoors. They had a soft slipper (to wear) inside.”

Eugenia has an eye for beauty and the possibilities posed by different fabrics. For the customer it's a case of talking through the design and later walking away with the finished shoe.

Eugenia Neave's range of handcrafted shoes is on sale at The Silver Shop in Hindmarsh Square and at her workspace and store on Brighton Road at Hove.

Eugenia Neave Shoe Store
360 Brighton Rd
Hove

The Silver Shop
6 Hindmarsh Square
Adelaide