JAN JANSEN

Jan Jansen, one of the world's most famous shoe designers, was in his first designs already able to connect a perfect command of craft techniques with a limitless creativity and feeling for colour, material and innovation. After a stay in Italy, where he learned the tricks of the trade of making shoes by hand, he established himself in Amsterdam at the beginning of the sixties, founding an atelier as haute chaussurier. His rebellious designs quickly caught on in the swinging city and he soon found himself part of the artistic vanguard. He has made thousands of shoe designs, including countless ones that have now become classics and are often shamelessly copied. The 'Woody', the bamboo shoe, the man's shoe with a slanting zip, the models with a floating heel, Jansen continues to be well ahead of the trends, and to be copied on a large scale later. Jan Jansen relates the story of an inspired designer. Of a man continually in search of beauty, of surprise and of innovation, and who will not make a single commercial concession in doing so. It has not made him rich, but he does not think that is important. Above all, he has wanted to be a good designer. In this he has more than succeeded, as one can read about in this book.