Caroline Groves, a Freeman with the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers, is unlike anyone else. Acknowledged within the industry as the “Duchesse of handmade shoes”, her footwear blurs the boundaries of fashion, art and fantasy.

Embracing historical detail, comfort and sensuality, Caroline’s footwear are museum-worthy designs with integrity sewn into the fibre of every pair. Hand-stitched and often constructed without glue, utilising historically accurate techniques, the shoes look like art and feel like heaven.

The mission was to take the brand from museum to Madison Avenue and from industry secret to household name. Women tend to lean towards the humble, so we did the job for her. We elevated the brand name to Caroline Groves Couture in long-overdue homage to her genius, presenting the brand as aspirational and collectable. Every detail of the brand design illustrated her tradition injected with rebel elements.

We crafted a monogram in opulent, concentric letterforms crowned with Caroline’s signature cockatiel feather. We deconstructed a classic serif letterform, eliminating details and elongating descenders then reassembled the anarchy with meticulous letter spacing and formal, centred layout — irreverent yet oh, so elegant. Handmade marble paper completed the core brand assets, alluding to the heritage of her craft.

We named her diffusion line simply “Heels”. Of a quality long available for men, the collection introduced desirable handcrafted shoes for women, filling a gap in the fine shoe market. This enables customers to dip their toes into the exclusive world of couture by choosing favourite materials and heel shapes. We created extra tall hand drawn letterforms as extensions to the main CGC type which kept consistency yet contrasted with the core Caroline Groves Couture branding.