Page 50 - S/ Summer 2021

FASHION
FANCY FEET
Olivia Pudelko, the artist and designer behind Western Affair, wants you to feel special in her shoes.
BY JULIA BRUCCULIERI
Olivia Pudelko, the 26-year-old
behind cult-favourite footwear brand Western Affair, wasn’t always planning to work in fashion. Before gaining an online following for her playful shoes, she studied fine art, and she admits that fashion is something she “just fell into.”
“I always painted, always made sculptures. So it was natural to go and study art,” she reveals over a Zoom call, which she joined after coming in from a hike. “I think the way I make shoes, I still kind of make them like
I would make sculptures.”
Pudelko, who works between Poland and
London, first started making footwear in 2017, during her final year at the University of Westminster. At the time, and for about three years after that, she was making every pair by hand using upcycled materials. Now, she works with a small production team to bring her unique, sustainably focused designs to life.
So far, she’s managed to turn those ideas into viral sensations. Among her most notable designs are her carpet mules, made with plush floral rugs that evoke childhood memories of your grandmother’s house; her sheep fur heels, made with sheepskins sourced from the mountains in Poland and Slovakia; and her mismatched tie heels, which give a second life to vintage silk ties.
The use of these upcycled textiles has become a hallmark of Western Affair, and Pudelko wouldn’t have it any other way. In art school, she says, teachers would encourage students to go through discarded materials and look for found objects to use in their work. “For me, it was only natural to make wearable pieces that way,” she says, adding (quite enthusiastically), “I hate going into a fabric store. I hate it so much!”
Instead, she prefers perusing vintage stores and antique shops, though she’s also open to more unconventional avenues. Many of the ties she used in her last collection came from a woman in Slovenia who reached out on
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Photos courtesy of Western Affair.