In this episode, Katie chats with Georgina Goodman. A fellow Cordwainer,  footwear style icon, tutor, stylist, and entrepreneur. She is straight-talking and tenuous. Her footwear is discreetly luxurious, and she possesses an extraordinary attention to detail and the ability to read the tea leaves of trends.

Listen to her rollercoaster journey from leaving school at 16 in a world that didn’t recognise learning difficulties as they do today, and studying the technical back end of fashion design whilst working in a jeans shop. To setting up her own brand and being hailed by Milano Blahnik as the future of footwear design.

Her hard work ethic and networking meant that despite being turned down by the Fashion courses she wanted she landed a role at the then 'it' label ‘The Cloth’. Moving to work for ID Magazine and then Elle Magazine before discovering the world of shoes and going back to study at Cordwainers College.

She shares how she won the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers Cup and felt supported as a student by the Company.

She talks frankly about the defining and difficult moment of losing her company and the challenges of working with investors, and how she fought to get her name back. Listen as Georgina shares thoughts on advice she wished she would take, as well as that which she would offer those looking to enter the industry today.

Katie and Georgina close by discussing the huge influence of Sue Saunders on both their lives and on a generation in the footwear industry as a whole. They touch on the joy of giving back through teaching and how the importance of continuing to learn as Georgina has been branching out to use her understanding of shape and form in footwear into the use of space for garden design.

Be inspired by her moment of ‘this is not normal’, the international language of sketching, and never underestimate the power of saying yes and networking.

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This podcast is produced by Audio Coast