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Helen Kirkum debuts bags and home accessories at LFW
British footwear designer Helen Kirkum, known for her sustainably reconstructed sneakers, debuted a new range of bags and home accessories alongside new footwear silhouettes at London Fashion Week.
For her presentation ‘Cobbled Together,’ showcased as part of the NewGen initiative, Kirkum unveiled her upcoming sneakers and accessories in an immersive home environment, complete with a three-tier chandelier made using deadstock shoelaces, and models wearing designs by friends of the brand, including Raeburn and Bethany Williams.
For spring/summer 2024, the London-based luxury footwear brand steps firmly into accessories with the launch of a new range of bags, including tote and tool bags made from its signature ‘Sneaker Collaged Leather’, alongside handcrafted mini bags made using woven and knotted shoelaces, and a crossbody made entirely from salvaged tongue linings.
For the footwear, the Palimpsest Sneaker V2 crafted from distressed leather and suede returns in the core colours, as well as a new style in a collaged mesh material way in ‘Bleached Lime’ and ‘Process Blue’ tones. Kirkum is also launching a new footwear silhouette, a low slip-on style crafted from its woven shoelace material.
This season also marks the brand’s first move into home accessories with a collection of plant pots made using the offcuts of their sneaker production.
Commenting on the collection, Kirkum said in the show notes: “It’s a reflection on our personal relationship with our ever-transforming identities and the fragments that we keep inside. For this collection, we wanted to take a deeper look into our in-house waste streams and work backwards to create products that have a synergy with the properties of the materials.
“We’ve woven shoelaces and quilted tongue linings to create new materials that expose the unseen, utilising components we previously couldn’t use in production to expand our product range in an authentic and meaningful way.”