This is Not a Shoe: What Happened When We Brought Unwearable Shoes to Melbourne Fashion Festival
This is not a shoe, Workshops, Events Alexandra Sherlock This is not a shoe, Workshops, Events Alexandra Sherlock

This is Not a Shoe: What Happened When We Brought Unwearable Shoes to Melbourne Fashion Festival

What happens when you invite people to take apart a beloved pair of shoes? At the Melbourne Fashion Festival 2026, academic Dr Alexandra Sherlock and contemporary jeweller Pennie Jagiello found out. The latest outcome of a four-year research-led creative collaboration, 'This is Not a Shoe' brought strangers together in Pennie's studio at the Abbotsford Convent. What unfolded was something far more profound than anyone expected. Read about the project's origins, what participants discovered, and where it's headed next.

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If the shoe fits:
FootweaR, Identity & Transition

The Footwear Research Network is an outcome of the ESRC-funded research project If the Shoe Fits: Footwear Identity and Transition at the University of Sheffield (2010-2013). Learn more about the project and research outputs here.

Screen shot from the research project documentary of a woman in a polkadot shirt and with red hair selecting shoes from a personal display hanging on a wall.

  • The Footwear Research Network is an outcome of the ESRC-funded research project If the Shoe Fits: Footwear Identity and Transition at the University of Sheffield (2010-2013).

    Learn more here

  • Watch the ‘If the Shoe Fits’ documentary to learn more about the research project and the relationship between wearers and their shoes. Filmed and produced by Sheffield Vision.

  • Learn more about the ‘If the Shoe Fits’ research team and board of advisors.

  • Following the success of the original ITSF project, further funding was secured in 2015 for a follow-on project, ‘If the Shoe Fits: Enabling Patient-Centred Podiatry’.

    Learn more.

  • A number of papers and publications were produced directly from the ‘If the Shoe Fits’ research and in association with the project. Access the full list here.