You can’t walk through Marylebone Lane in London and not be drawn by the unique Tracey Neuls shoe store.  At first glance you might mistake it for an exhibition.  And that’s certainly not accidental.  Creating a unique shopping experience is central to Tracey’s ethos.

This innovative shoe designer has won several awards, including New Generation, Design Week Benchmark and Royal Society of Arts.  Her instinct for using different materials and shapes have clearly played a central role in these achievements.

Awards aside, Tracey is down to earth, warm and welcoming and took the time to answer a few questions we had for her.

What would you say played the biggest part in making you want to design shoes?

I have designed shoes since I was a little kid. I can’t believe that my mother allowed me to walk around in my cardboard heels (aka toilet paper roll cores!) It has been in my blood since day one.

What is the inspiration behind your designs?

The design process is fairly internal and personal for me. I think it is really important to access one’s creativity with the same childhood naivety, free from outside influence. Our starting point is truly original and free of high street trends. Inspiration could be as simple as a day to day object, stationary or other overlooked everyday experiences.

Where do you get your best ideas?

The best sculptural shapes come from plasticine! The smell of the material is enough to evoke unrelenting creativity.

We chatted a bit about the concept behind your Marylebone Lane store – could you tell our readers a bit about it?

From the high street to high fashion, shops display their goods in more or less the same way. The shops seem to be about facades rather than feeling. We feel the opposite and like that our shoppers have an emotional response to our shoes and shopping experience. In the winter we bake bread creating the juxtaposition between the smell of bread, memories of mother and shoes. Swaying shoes hung from strings are also a good way to see the full shoe with 360′ of design and craftsmanship. Honesty and sincerity goes a long way.

We loved your store, both in terms of the shoes and how welcome we felt there – what would you say about it to someone who’s not been there before?

Good design need not be alienating and unfriendly. Women can easily spend an hour trying on all the shoes. Choosing the right pair of shoes is like choosing a pet. Everyone who works here has a lot to offer and conversation is always great. I have been shopping where eye contact with the staff never happens. Call me old school but that is just wrong!

Who is the Tracy Neuls woman?

The lovely thing is that the Tracey Neuls woman doesn’t really fit into the normal age demographic. It is all about the individualistic mind frame. We have many mothers and daughters buying the same shoes. She is everywhere and also very unpredictable.

We also had the pleasure of meeting store manager Jane Howard who made us feel so welcome and confirmed our belief that high fashion doesn’t have to be aloof!

Here are some of the snaps we took of the store and the fab shoes.

The store is at  29 Marylebone Lane London W1U 2NQ.  The gorgeous collection is also available on the Tracey Neuls website.