Shoe journal Bicolours

Shoe journal. How the shoes are made.

Meet-up with with the craftsmen who turn my design into reality.

It all starts with the design of the shoes and the careful selection of natural and sustainable materials.

The soles of the limited edition Bicolours are made from the sap of the hevea tree. Lactae Hevea literally means milk out of the hevea tree in Latin. Essentially it is 100% natural rubber.

Rubber tapping

An incision is made in the tree’s bark, from which the sap then flows.

Plantation of hevea trees, commonly known as natural rubber trees

The hevea trees grow in South-East Asia. Rubber trees can be sustainably harvested for approximately 35 years.

The French company Reltex, located between Lyon and Grenoble, produces natural soles in hevea milk. This really unique process features in the UNESCO inventory of intangible cultural heritage.

The hevea milk is poured by hand into steel molds.

The molds are heated, causing the milk to coagulate. After a baking process of an hour, the soles are delicately removed by hand. They still look like soft cheese.