BRISBANE: Boutique shoe brand Vein Wear has announced the finalists of its first shoe competition, with the winner set to have their design manufactured and sold.
During a two week online public voting period, three designers were narrowed down from 35 national and international submissions. Entries came from the US, Turkey, Hungary, Finland, Spain, UK and Asia. Less than half of the entries were from Australia.
Finalists are US designer Andrew James, who designed a grey ankle boot called The Westerly, Spiro Manolopoulos from Australia for a zip fronted Oxford shoe and Yu Chih-Chieh from Taiwan for an olive and beige lace up shoe called Vagrant.
They now face a judging panel of 12 national fashion editors, educators and footwear experts, with the winner announced on March 3 at Vein Wear's new Brisbane Arcade store.
Judges include Brisbane Fashion Festival director Lindsay Bennett, Men's Style Australia editor Peter Holder and QUT fashion discipline leader Wendy Armstrong.
Vein Wear is a men's shoe label run by shoe designer Christopher McCallum. It has two stores in Brisbane.