BRAND NEW DIRECTIONS BEST FOOT FORWARD
brand new directions
‘Wide-fit shoes were frumpy, so I designed elegant ones’
Katie Owen, 44, lives in London with her husband and their two sons, aged nine and seven. In 2014, she left her job in finance and launched Sargasso & Grey, a luxury company specialising in wide-fitting shoes, which have since been worn by the Duchess of Cornwall, Lorraine Kelly and Dawn French.
THE IDEA
I’ve always had wide feet and, in my previous job, I spent long days in painful high heels. In 2011, after I had my first child, my feet became wider still, and I couldn’t get into any of my work heels. I began searching for wide-fit shoes, but all I could find were frumpy options.
A friend who ran a shoe business suggested that if I couldn’t find what I wanted, I should make my own. I was inspired and signed up for an evening course in shoe design at the London College of Fashion.
