Can we walk a mile in another's shoes to determine what we have to lose?
The Signal Fire Killswitch Engage
We all have duality inside us. Black and white, positive and negative, complementary strengths that need to attract and repulse at the same time to find the right balance.
Everything starts with our reptilian brain. The one which protects us, the one which gives us impulses.
Catch my eye, catch my personality and you'll know who I am.
Life is a quest, find the signal fire, the one which burns inside yourself.
In the eye of the beholder
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Kendrick
Born in a small town in Normandy where the main activity had been the tannery, with leather coming from Latin America, I had parents that gave me a sensitive vision of the world through arts and traveling. Their parents were also resistants during the war, painter, dressmaker, bootmaker, in love with fashion shows - sketching dresses, as photography was prohibited at that time - and store manager for a shoe brand.
Lost in translation, I had to get out of France and flew to Mexico where I could nearly get the feeling of the prehispanic civilization by visiting temples and seeing their art. It has been a shock to see such beautiful treasures, colors and discover a world where duality is not undercover.
Who has breathed the dust of the roads of Mexico will not find peace in any other country.
—Malcom Lowry, British poet and novelist.
This surrealist country has attracted surrealist artists in a spiritual quest fueled by myths with an initiatory dimension, and so I did...
This experience allowed me to develop a means of expression as an artist, that is photography, and I decided to change my life.
Before leaving Paris for Mexico, I kept in mind an emotion I got, while seeing a woman's silhouette wearing heels on the Eiffel Tower. I have always been sensitive to sounds, images and many times I did pictures without thinking because I could feel this emotion in my heart.
When I came back to France I started a career as a professional photographer which immersed me in Parisian life and the fashion world. Again, I felt this emotion that enhances your state of mind taking pictures of women of which I could say : you can feel their strength.
materialization of an emotion
Drawing by Kendrick
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As a doer and an engineer, I created my own prototypes of sandals, pumps, boots, ankle boots with 10.5 centimeters heels that give a perfect silhouette.
The heels have been quickly adopted by many tv hosts and celebrities. Discover the life of the product in the media.
Interview of the shoe designer
Interview in french of Kendrick at french fashion school Institut Français de la Mode about the genesis of the brand.
Kendrick, combining the photographer’s eye and the engineer’s brain.
A shoe is composed mainly of three parts: the sole, the heel and the upper, covering the top of the foot. The art of shoe design is to juggle with these three elements to create unique pieces. Kendrick, a Université de Technologie de Compiègne graduate, has also patiently assembled very different elements throughout his professional life to obtain his creation today: his own shoe brand, which is already making a name for itself.
The base-line, or sole, of Kendrick’s professional life is his engineering degree in mechanical systems, obtained in 1998.
Between design and work, he is already beginning to realize that creativity is a vital necessity. But before he could take his thoughts any further, his military service caught up with him and sent him to Mexico, as an international volunteer in a company. A brutal uprooting, from which he will come back with two personal assets: an enhanced talent for photography, which he will even use in a travel guide, and a fascination, fed by his distance from France, for a fantasized image of the Parisian woman in high heels.
The heel is a vertiginous heel, of course, for the man who collects the most diverse lines on his CV. As a fashion photographer, he goes to fashion weeks and red carpet events.
As a web designer, he worked on the development of digital platforms for the daily newspaper Le Figaro. As an entrepreneur, he bought a company that produces styling software, which is sold worldwide to large groups. An eclectic CV, but dominated by Kendrick’s passion for fashion and aesthetics.
If the sole and the heel are good, it’s now time to dress the foot, to create the shoe that will sublimate the person wearing it. Developing his own models is exactly what Kendrick has been thinking about for years.
His dual background as an engineer and a fashion photographer allowed him to think about shoes differently, and to launch into the creation of his first prototype. Without any training as a shoemaker, but with a deep desire, after years of working in the digital world, to find a manual activity.
And a first pair was born. A simple, uncluttered sandal that caught the eye of certain designers. And in addition to taking pride of place in trendy Parisian boutiques, they ended up on the feet of television presenters or stars on the same red carpets he walked as a fashion photographer.
After the sandal, boots, ankle boots and pumps followed, always in the same straightforward colours (red, yellow, black, nude) and with the same concern for a simple and ultra-elegant line. As his brand began to make a name for itself in the fashion world, Kendrick the engineer quickly became Kendrick the shoe designer. To facilitate this transition, he followed a training course at the French Fashion Institute, «l’Incubateur», to develop his brand.
Videos of Kendrick work as Photographer
News, travel guide, runway and backstage fashion photographer working for press agencies and magazines.
High heel sandals
This is the first model produced from the prototype handmade and photographed by Kendrick. At that time he was covering Haute Couture fashion shows for photography agencies and created a magazine. You can read his article about a famous designer as he produced text and photos.
