Stepping Up

With his first shoe collection for Salvatore Ferragamo making its debut, Paul Andrew has big shoes to fill. Justine Lee travels to Seoul for the launch and to meet the British designer

- Justine Lee

Darling, if you need air miles, I’m your man,” jokes Paul Andrew, Salvatore Ferragamo’s design director for women’s footwear, the brand’s first, as we meet on a sunny spring afternoon in Seoul. The British designer’s debut collection was shown recently in New York and Paris to representatives of a small group of publications, and now its roll-out is about to begin with a launch event in the South Korean capital. “I just got in from New York last night,” he says, looking surprisingly refreshed and ready to go after his 15-hour flight. And he’s got a tough schedule ahead of him. Andrew hasn’t been to Asia for almost two years, so he has decided to make the most of the trip; after Seoul, he and the Ferragamo team will be jetting off to Tokyo for a few days of research and to introduce the collection to the Japanese press, and then he’s off to Oman to speak at the Condé Nast International Luxury Conference. But while he’s in Seoul, Andrew finds the time to talk to us about his journey thus far and his vision for the brand.

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