Overview:

For our season finale, Alex sits down with retired entertainment reporter Fran Weinstein, whose memoir Tortured Soles tells the story of a remarkable career through her shoe collection. Fran's stories from the red carpet open into a deep conversation about femininity across the life course, the ethics of the gossip industry, women's rights, the mental health toll of living our lives on show, and how our shoes carry our memories.

Credits:

Presenters: Dr Alexandra Sherlock & Dr Emily Brayshaw
Guest: Fran Weinstein
Production and Editing: Dr Alexandra Sherlock

Chapters:

1. [00:00] Welcome and Acknowledgement of Country
2. [01:00] The season finale: introducing celebrity reporter Fran Weinstein
3. [03:54] The politics of heels: femininity and choice
4. [07:11] A life on the red carpet
5. [09:02] Writing her memoir Tortured Soles: High Heels, Low Expectations and the Hollywood Gossip Mill.
6. [10:09] Where we didn't belong: 9/11 and Michael J. Fox
7. [14:30] The reporter/celebrity unwritten contract - Clooney and Jamie Lee Curtis
8. [16:32] Short and being seen, in 200 pairs of designer shoes
9. [18:56] A first-generation Bronx childhood and Captain Kangaroo
10. [22:03] Reading people, and the seven-year-old consigliere
11. [29:31] The Anne Heche tape, the Chanels, and the kicked-in door
12. [40:11] Celebrities as gods, reporters as messengers
13. [46:55] The night it ended: a fall in Stuart Weitzman boots
14. [48:41] Crossing the line: Heath Ledger and the modern industry
15. [52:55] Everyone is on show: mental health impacts of social media and 24/7 visibility today
16. [55:44] Coming back down to earth: Birkenstocks, thongs and a reconnection with nature.
17. [1:02:43] The 2003 blackout in Chanel mules
18. [1:04:07] Advice for women: stand in your truth
19. [1:06:49] Analysis with Emily and Alex: power, ageing, feminism and "tortured soles"

Visit https://footwearresearchnetwork.org/podcast for full show notes, transcript and images of Fran's shoes.

www.footwearresearchnetwork.org

Overview:

In this episode, Alex speaks with Wendy Ward, PhD candidate at Sheffield Hallam University, about the relationships and connections we build with our clothes and shoes, and how they might encourage more sustainable behaviour. Wendy shares creative practices from her doctoral research, including wardrobe audits, ink prints of "broken" garments and her daily stitching ritual, all designed to deepen attachment and mindfulness rather than provoke guilt. The conversation explores how paying attention to what we already own can restore connection with our belongings, each other and the planet.

Credits:

Guest: Wendy Ward
Presenters: Dr Alexandra Sherlock & Dr Emily Brayshaw
Production and Editing: Dr Alexandra Sherlock

Chapters:

1. 00:10 — Introduction 
2. 02:04 — Brave New World: "The More Stitches, The Less Riches"
3. 07:37 — Meet Wendy Ward: Enduring Fashion 
4. 13:13 — From Fast Fashion to Fair Trade 
5. 16:53 — Material Engagement and How It Changes Us 
6. 22:51 — The Waste Problem: Clothes and Shoes 
7. 27:06 — Beyond Guilt: Creative Methods for Change 
8. 30:12 — Wardrobe Audits and Data Visualisation 
9. 32:44 — Loved and Broken Garments: Prints, Rubbings and Break-Up Letters 
10. 47:06 — The Daily Stitch: French Knots and Seasonal Colour 
11. 57:13 — Slowing Down: Attention, Drawing and Keeping-While-Giving 
12. 1:15:17 — What Could Industry Do Differently? 
13. 1:20:42 — Shoes, Mending and Future Collaboration 
14. 1:26:15 — Debrief: Repair, Sole Prints and Conspicuous Waste 
15. 1:33:58 — Debrief: Wardrobe Studies and What's Next

Images and full transcript at www.footwearresearchnetwork.org/podcast

www.footwearresearchnetwork.org

OVERVIEW

Why do we dress the dead, and why do we so often insist on shoes for bodies that will never walk again? In this episode of The Social Lives of Shoes, Dr Alexandra Sherlock speaks with Dr Pia Interlandi, Associate Professor at Curtin University and founder of Garments for the Grave, whose practice interlaces fashion, funerals and forensics. Together they explore what dressing the dead, natural burial, and Pia's pioneering research into textile decomposition, from The Pig Project to alkaline hydrolysis experiments on Ugg boots, Adidas Superstars and Clarks school shoes, can teach us about material life cycles, circularity and the ends of shoes' lives.

Content note: This episode contains detailed discussion of death, dying and dressing the dead, and mentions cancer treatment and animal use in research. If this episode brings anything up for you, please visit https://findahelpline.com for grief and crisis support local to you.

CREDITS:

Guest: Dr Pia Interlandi

Presenters: Dr Alexandra Sherlock & Dr Emily Brayshaw

Produced and edited by: Dr Alexandra Sherlock

Published by the Footwear Research Network

CHAPTERS:

1. [01:07] Episode 9 Introduction and Content Note
2. [06:51] Meet Associate Professor Pia Interlandi
3. [09:37] Fashion and Death as Sisters
4. [14:27] Garments for the Grave — Dressing the Dead as Ritual
5. [18:12] The Denial of Death — Becker, Capitalism and Legacy
6. [26:40] "Why Are We Putting Him in Shoes?" — Dressing Nonno and Nonna
7. [35:06] Mummified Feet, Personhood and Planning a Good Death
8. [41:19] Pointe Shoes — Linda Nurk, Rachel and What We Take to the Grave
9. [46:51] The Pig Project — Decomposition, Data and Disgust
10. [1:01:26] What Happened to the Fibres — Protein, Plant and Plastic
11. [1:09:44] Alkaline Hydrolysis — An Alternative End for Bodies
12. [1:12:22] Dissolving Shoes — Uggs, Superstars and School Shoes
13. [1:17:52] Debrief — Transformation, Cinderella and a Pair of Crocs
14. [1:21:54] Debrief — Surrogate Bodies, Disgust and Pia's Ongoing Work
15. [1:28:11] Bonus Story — The Lynx Effect

Full transcript, images and links at www.footwearresearchnetwork.org/podcast/shoes-and-death-with-pia-interlandi 

www.footwearresearchnetwork.org

The Footwear Research Network is becoming a non-profit social enterprise, and Alex, Emily and Pennie explain why now's the moment to get involved. After sixteen years bringing human insight to footwear sustainability, this step lets FRN operate independently, build real partnerships, and grow the podcast and This Is Not a Shoe workshops. Become a Founding Patron, support work already shaping the footwear industry, and help write the next chapter together.

More information at:
https://footwearresearchnetwork.org/articles/the-footwear-research-network-is-registering-to-become-a-non-profit-social-enterprise

Donate now via GoFundMe:
https://gofund.me/93cd1aebf

www.footwearresearchnetwork.org

How and why do we become attached to particular shoes? What does this mean for disposal? How might ideas of attachment inform circular and sustainable business models and consumer practices? In this episode Dr. Alexandra Sherlock speaks with Dr. Ellen Sampson author of 'Worn: Footwear, Attachment and the Affects of Wear' about how and why we become attached to shoes, and the implications of these attachments at the end of a shoe’s ‘life’.

Credits:
Interviewee: Dr Ellen Sampson
Presenters: Dr Alexandra Sherlock & Dr Emily Brayshaw
Produced and edited by: Dr Alexandra Sherlock

Chapters:

1. [00:58] Episode 8 Introduction
2. [02:27] Emotionally Durable Design and Jonathan Chapman
3. [07:48] Attachment and Shoes — The Palimpsest
4. [16:57] The Pros and Cons of Durability
5. [25.05] The Concept of Cleaving — Attachment and Detachment
6. [27:59] Fetishising Shoes - Meaning and Metaphor
7. [30:16] This Is Not a Shoe — Detachment Through Deconstruction
8. [34:12] Divestment Strategies and Managed Letting Go
9. [37:09] Ongoingness, Narrative, and Resale Platforms
10. [48:42] Circularity, Loss, and Material Life Cycles      
11. [50:28] Resources and What's Coming Next
12. [52:21] Key Takeaways — Emily and Alex Reflect

Transcript links and show notes at www.footwearresearchnetwork.org 

www.footwearresearchnetwork.org

Overview: 

In this episode, Dr Alexandra Sherlock debriefs Dr Emily Brayshaw on her recent attendance at the 28th Annual IFFTI (International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes) Conference, hosted by RMIT University's Vietnam Campus in Ho Chi Minh City. The conference theme, ‘Cultural Connections for Sustainable Fashion Futures: Rebuild, Renew and Regenerate’, drew Alex to Vietnam with a clear purpose: to put footwear on the radar of fashion sustainability researchers, and to ask what the field's most progressive thinking means for an industry that has long been left out of the conversation. Alex shares insights from key conference papers, translates their themes for a footwear audience, reflects on a visit to a Vietnamese footwear factory, and makes the case for culture as the essential foundation of any genuinely sustainable fashion future. 

Credits:

• Presenters: Dr Alexandra Sherlock and Dr Emily Brayshaw
• Edited and produced by: Dr Alexandra Sherlock
• Photographs and images: Credits in captions 

Chapters:

1. [00:00] - Show Intro
2. [00:47] - Acknowledgements and Corrections
3. [05:22] - Vietnam and IFFTI: Cultural Connections for Sustainable Fashion Futures - Rebuild, Renew and Regenerate
4. [08:23] - Footwear: The Blind Spot in Fashion Research 
5. [14:41] - School Uniforms and Permaculture
6. [20:31] - School Uniforms, Government Funding and Repair Economies
7. [25:55] - Inside a Vietnamese Shoe Factory
8. [31:12] - Digital Product Passports, Blockchain and Storytelling
9. [36:43] - Taming, Rewilding and the Capitalist Co-Option Problem
10. [40:30] - Boro, Kintsugi and the Repair as Ritual
11. [51:13] - Waste Not Want Not
12. [56:01] - The Evolving Role of Higher Education
13. [59:13] - Culture as the Fourth Pillar of Sustainability

All links, images and verified transcripts at the Footwear Research Network

www.footwearresearchnetwork.org

Overview:

In the third and final episode of our trilogy on footwear histories and archives, Dr Emily Brayshaw speaks with Dr Hilary Davidson, dress, textile and fashion historian and curator, about what we can learn from the consumption and manufacture of footwear in the Regency period, from proxy shopping networks and colonial supply chains to repair culture and the enduring value of archive-based research.

Credits:

• Interviewee: Dr Hilary Davidson
• Interviewer: Dr Emily Brayshaw
• Presenters: Dr Alexandra Sherlock and Dr Emily Brayshaw
• Edited and produced by: Dr Alexandra Sherlock
• Photographs and images: Credits in captions 

Chapters:

00:00 - Show Intro

00:59 - Episode 6 Overview and Context

13:56 - Introducing Hilary Davidson

17:08 - The Importance of Jane Austen

20:34 - Shoes in the Regency Period: An Overview

23:33 - Boots, Leisure, and Military Chic

26:37 - When Women's Shoes Lost Their Heels

29:30 - Regency retail: Letters and Proxy Shopping

32:42 - Convicts, Colonies, and the rise of the Global Shoe Trade

40:11 - Theft, Repair, and the Value of a Good Boot

43:00 - Historical Insights for Sustainability

46:07 - Australian Climate, Identity, and Style

51:06 - Current Projects and Future Directions

53:36 - Sign-off

Full show notes at www.footwearresearchnetwork.org 

www.footwearresearchnetwork.org

The second episode in our three-part series on footwear histories and archives features Dr Emily Brayshaw in conversation with Elizabeth Semmelhack, Director and Senior Curator of the Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto. From the museum's founding vision to virtual footwear and sustainability, Elizabeth reveals how a world-class collection can simultaneously serve designers, researchers, and communities. And why material objects matter more, not less, in an increasingly digital world.

Credits:

• Interviewee: Elizabeth Semmelhack: Director and Senior Curator at the Bata Shoe Museum
• Interviewer: Dr. Emily Brayshaw
• Presenters: Dr. Alexandra Sherlock and Dr. Emily Brayshaw
• Edited and produced by: Dr. Alexandra Sherlock
• Photographs: Credits in captions 

Chapters

00:00 - Show Intro

00:58 - Episode 5 Overview

05:37 - How serendipity brought an art historian to footwear

08:11 - Shoes as Research Method:  Reading gender, economics and fashion through what people wore

11:14 - Debunking the Chopine: Why objects and cultural context must be studied together

15:02 - One Woman's Collection: The founding vision of the Bata Shoe Museum and how it has evolved

19:27 - Designers in the Archive: How and why designers engage with the Museum’s collections

23:22 - Object and Context: The power and significance of the material object

27:11 - The Worn-Out Sole: What signs of wear can reveal about bodies, lives and secondhand markets

31:07 - Twenty Billion Pairs: The scale of overproduction and why most of what we make can't be kept or recycled

34:38 - Shoes Without Bodies: Virtual footwear, the metaverse and what shoes might mean in digital space

38:32 - Next Steps: Roman forts, cowboy boots and beadwork:  the Bata Shoe Museum’s  current and upcoming projects

40:22 - Episode Reflection: Emily and Alex

43:30 - Show outro

Show Notes

www.footwearresearchnetwork.org

What is the value of the footwear archive and museum? Why are so many brands now establishing their own archives, and how and why do footwear professionals engage with archival materials? In the first of three episodes on footwear histories, Dr Alexandra Sherlock chats with Tim Crumplin, business archivist at the Shoemakers Museum and Alfred Gillet Trust (Clarks Archive), to discuss the significance of public and private archives and the vital role of their custodianship for culture and industry.

Credits:

Interviewee: Tim Crumplin
Interviewer: Dr. Alexandra Sherlock
Presenters: Dr. Alexandra Sherlock and Dr. Emily Brayshaw
Editor: Dr. Alexandra Sherlock
Photographs: Credits in photograph captions

Chapters:

00:00 - Show Intro

00:58 - Episode Overview - Emily and Alex

07:26 - Tim’s background and route into Clarks and the Alfred Gillet Trust

11:09 - How the archive has changed

14:15 - Recognising the value of the archive as a creative resource

18:28 - Street, Somerset and the Quaker influence on Clarks

24:40 - Vertical integration and traceability

27:50 - How to build an archive

37:23 - The vulnerability of shoe museums and archives

39:03 - The case for the charitable trust model

45:20 - Collection policy: what gets kept and why

49:40 - How designers use the archive in practice

55:30 - Archives, corporate culture and healthy approaches to risk-taking

01:06:47 - External access and community engagement

01:09:03 - Digitisation

01:16:52 - How to become a business archivist

01:19:04 - Finding and visiting the Shoemakers Museum 

www.footwearresearchnetwork.org

What makes a shoe iconic, and what can iconic shoes teach us about sustainability, design, and cultural exchange? Dr. Emily Brayshaw and Dr. Alexandra Sherlock bring together their research on Birkenstock and Clarks Originals to explore how shoes become long-lasting cultural objects.

This conversation traces the journey of the Arizona sandal and Desert Boot from their origins in post-war German design philosophies and African cultures to their unexpected adoption by communities worldwide, from Jamaican musicians to Sydney's lesbian scene, from Silicon Valley's Steve Jobs to Gen Z's comfort revolution.

Emily and Alex discuss the role of business archives in authentic storytelling, how costume designers deploy shoes as narrative devices in film, why different shoes require different sustainability approaches, from repair programs for emotionally durable icons to biodegradable materials for more ephemeral styles, and how brands should listen to culture rather than trying to control it. Drawing on Appadurai and Kopytoff's theories of things in motion, they reveal how following shoes' social lives and biographies illuminates human values and creates pathways to meaningful, relevant and sustainable design.

Chapters:

1. 00:00 - Show Intro
2. 00:49 - Episode Introduction
3. 02:28 - Acknowledgment of Country - An Explainer for International Listeners
4. 05:56 - The Social Lives of Clarks Originals and Birkenstocks
5. 07:17 - Research Foundations: Clarks and Cultural Sustainability
6. 08:39 - Archetypes: The Arizona and the Desert Boot
7. 10:41 - Post-War Design Philosophy: Form Follows Function
8. 14:07 - Steve Jobs and the Power of Simplicity
9. 16:22 - Counterculture: From Hippies to Tech Visionaries
10. 20:40 - Archives and Anniversary Books
11. 23:13 - The Alfred Gillett Trust: Preserving Heritage
12. 26:19 - Icons Without Advertising
13. 28:02 - Queer Birkenstocks: Sydney's Lesbian Community
14. 31:10 - Jamaica Claims the Desert Boot
15. 32:15 - Hippies, Grunge, Gen Z: Meanings That Don't Compete
16. 34:22 - Sticky Objects: Shoes That Attract Communities
17. 35:05 - Ageless and Timeless: From 7 to 70
18. 36:31 - Wu-Tang and Granddad: Cross-Generational Appeal
19. 41:21 - Jamaica and Authentic Storytelling
20. 44:05 - When Shoes Become Cultural Objects
21. 44:32 - Costume design and characterisation
22. 44:42 - Costume Design: Shoes as Narrative Devices
23. 49:08 - The Symbolic Power of Footwear
24. 49:38 - Brands as Listeners: The Importance of Cultural Capital
25. 50:54 - World Shoes
26. 52:29 - Cultural Exchange and Collaboration
27. 54:33 - Gen Z, Authenticity, and Finding Your Tribe
28. 54:45 - Building Cultural Capital
29. 55:29 - Sustainability Through Meaning
30. 55:42 - Accidentally Sustainable
31. 56:56 - Repair, Patina, and Memory
32. 59:15 - Horses for Courses: Different Models for Different Shoes
33. 01:00:01 - A Social Lives Methodology: Following the Things Themselves
34. 01:02:45 - Episode Outro

Credits:

Presenters: Dr. Alexandra Sherlock and Dr. Emily Brayshaw

Editor: Dr. Alexandra Sherlock

Show notes and photographs:

www.footwearresearchnetwork.org