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British shoe phenom Sophia Webster walks the walk

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British shoe designer Sophia Webster has barely had time to catch her breath, let alone grab breakfast, when she bursts into her spacious new offices in a hip part of East London on a chilly fall morning following a late-running doctor’s appointment.

As she strides across the room in jeans, a mint green cardigan and a pair of her own gem-encrusted Jessie mule sneakers (“I probably shouldn’t wear them with socks but they’re so comfy,” she confesses), an assistant is quickly dispatched to get Webster a cookie for a much-needed energy boost.

Such a frenetic schedule isn’t surprising given that Webster, who set up her eponymous company in 2012, just a couple of years after graduating from college, produces eight shoe collections a year as well as two children’s collections and four bag collections, all of which she balances alongside her marriage to former electrical engineer Bobby Stockley, who is now the company’s chief executive officer, and caring for the couple’s daughter Bibi, 2.

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Webster herself is just 31 — although makeup-free and with her Rapunzel-like locks gathered into a side plait she looks even younger, especially when perched at the large, glass desk in her enormous, white corner office.

The room is sparsely decorated (she only recently just moved in), save for a Sophia Webster Barbie Doll that sits on the window ledge behind her, from a collaboration with Mattel last year, and a full-sized chandelier — complete with 12 glass flamingos — dangling overhead.

“I’ve just always liked flamingos. They’re like a mascot,” she says of the birds, which feature regularly in her designs. “When I started drawing shoes I started drawing them on flamingo legs.”

It was at art college, during a life drawing class, that Webster first became obsessed with footwear. She went on to complete a degree at London’s Cordwainers, a specialist school for shoemaking whose alumni include Jimmy Choo and Nicholas Kirkwood. Then came a master’s degree at the Royal College of Art.

Despite Webster’s decidedly traditional training, she is best known for bright, whimsical designs such as her speech-bubble clutch bags and butterfly winged high heels, which have been worn by stars including Scarlett Johansson, Beyoncé and Jennifer Hudson. (The 2006 film “Dreamgirls” inspired Webster’s spring/summer 2017 collection, which debuted at London Fashion Week in September.) Webster’s shoes, which generally range from $300 to $1,000, are sold at retailers including Net-a-Porter, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.

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While most designers try to appear nonchalant about dressing marquee names, Webster freely admits: “It blows my mind to see big A-list celebrities in my shoes.”

Her most “pinch me” moment was probably when Gwen Stefani first wore a pair. “I was a big No Doubt fan growing up,” Webster says, revealing that when she visited Disneyland during a vacation with her family earlier this year she made a pit stop at Stefani’s childhood home in Anaheim. “It’s where she grew up, so it’s like the home of No Doubt,” Webster says with a laugh. “I had to have my picture taken outside her house!”

Usually when she’s in L.A., Webster says, she just wants “to chill,” grabbing breakfast at Malibu Cafe and taking Bibi for pony rides in Griffith Park. But she acknowledges the city has become a seminal location for fashion.

“We do a lot of business in L.A.,” she says.

Webster opened her first stand-alone store in London earlier this year. She’s already thinking of how to proceed in America. “Whether we start with a pop-up or go straight into a store I’m not sure, but it’s definitely something I’d like to do soon,” she says.

In the meantime, she enjoys connecting with customers worldwide via social media. “I get tagged in so many pictures of different women and how they’re wearing their shoes,” she says.

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As a millennial, Webster uses social media as much for inspiration as communication. More old-school designers might be shocked to hear her admit that she sketched out her trademark speech-bubble-shaped purses “100% thinking about social media and Instagram.”

The media saviness of her designs also means they’re ideal red carpet fare in an age when there’s a “shoe cam” lurking at every awards ceremony. When asked for red-carpet footwear tips, she replies: “You’ve got to think of it from a 360-degree [perspective]. So you’ve got, like, bows on the back or details in unexpected places.”

Nudes, metallic and black work well, she suggests, with special details such as crystal-embellished fabrics and heels: “Anything that catches the camera flash.”

With such an inherent understanding of the symbiotic relationship between fashion, media and celebrity, it won’t be any surprise if she ends up as one of the more popular designers on the red carpet this season. She might just be a shoe-in.

image@latimes.com

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