The SOcial Lives of shoes Podcast
What if shoes could speak?
The Social Lives of Shoes explores one of the most underestimated aspects of consumer culture through conversations with the people who design, make, study, and wear footwear.
Hosts Dr. Alexandra Sherlock and Dr. Emily Brayshaw uncover how shoes reflect our values, impact our world, and offer possibilities for more sustainable futures
Storytelling Through Shoes: Art, Activism and Social Change with Jo Cope
What stories can shoes tell? How can craft and performance art create empathy and drive social change? Contemporary fashion artist Jo Cope explores shoes as vessels for storytelling, from her Shelter collaboration addressing homelessness to evocative works examining femininity and solidarity. Discover how footwear connects communities and transforms emotional experience through art.
The Social Lives Team
Dr Emily Brayshaw
Emily Brayshaw is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Design School of the University of Technology Sydney and a costume designer. Her research interests include fashion, dress, textiles, and performance costumes in Europe and America between 1890 and 1930, feathers, the aesthetics of Kitsch, the viola, knitting, and ugly shoes. Emily writes regularly for The Conversation and has authored two histories of Birkenstock for its 250-year anniversary book.
Dr Alexandra Sherlock
Alexandra Sherlock is a Lecturer in the School of Fashion & Textiles at RMIT University, Melbourne. Her research is situated within material culture studies and focuses on fashion, footwear, and identity. Following the ‘If the Shoe Fits’ research project (2010-2013), she relaunched the If the Shoe Fits blog as the Footwear Research Network in 2021. She works with industry and the higher education sector to inform the development of a socially, culturally, environmentally, and economically sustainable footwear sector.