LONDON, United Kingdom – A few months ago, I was walking through the stalls of Scoop London, frivolously picking up anything that caught my eye as I searched for new emerging talent. All of a sudden, I came across a table display with podiums of various shapes and sizes that drew my eye through a quite unique footwear collection featuring an artful mix of styles, the SS16 “Marble” collection from Ganor Dominic.
Ganor Dominic features bespoke designs crafted by Italian artisans with locally sourced materials and components. The brand’s name has a paternal inspiration as Anna, Creative Director and Katherine, Brand Director chose to name their new venture after their father, Ganor Dominic – two sisters, one brand.
Let me introduce you to a one of a kind shoe collection featuring marble heels, tassels and digital prints inspired by the ancient Greek Gods and Muses!
3D Muses at your feet?
The Ancient Greek Gods and Muses have been a great inspiration for every piece of Ganor Dominic’s SS16 Marble collection. “My debut collection was inspired by Ancient Greek classical sculptures,” say Anna, who has always been fascinated by classical art and started to develop this theme during her final year at London College of Fashion, allowing her to win National Footwear Design Student Of The Year 2015 award, presented to her by Jimmy Choo.
Anna would then take further this concept to become the starting point of her new collection: “I took the core designs [from the award-winning graduate collection], such as the ones with 3D faces, and developed them into a more wearable range,” she recalls.
What makes Ganor Dominic’s design aesthetic so unique is the combination of various 3-dimensional details and classic shapes. A great example of this is their signature style ‘Apollo’ featuring a traditional shape of an elegant pump with a 3D printed face under the sole.
“The idea came from looking at Ancient Greek sculptures of Apollo (God of music, poetry and light). We 3D-scanned the face of the real sculpture and then 3D printed it following the shape of the shoe,” explains Anna. Afterwards, they applied a special treatment to achieve a marble effect to make it look like an actual sculpture. “We combined this ‘face’ idea with other techniques, such as leather embossing (styles ‘Selene’ and ‘Chronos’) and digital printing (styles ‘Gaia’, ‘Iris’ and ‘Tatty’), which we will continue to develop in future collections,” continues Anna.
This debut collection has already had a great response with very rewarding feedback for Anna and her sister. They participated in Scoop London and the Tranoi show in Paris in 2015 and now they will focus on expanding brand awareness through social media and will exhibit the new collection during fashion weeks in London and Paris again.
What does the future hold?
Techniques like 3D printing and artful styles will continue to inspire Anna in her upcoming work. “Our AW16/17 collection will be called ‘Black Marble’. It will have a similar design aesthetic as SS16 with usage of 3D printing and will also feature face details, but it will have a darker feeling with a black & red colour palette.”
Like the debut collection Ganor Dominic’s AW16/17 range will combine very feminine styles, such as high heel pumps with masculine lace ups and soldier boots.
Stay tuned because the new collection will launch in February 2016 with more surprises to come as they are planning to “expand to children and men’s footwear and, by that time, open an independent boutique in London,” concludes Anna with a optimistic note.
I see a great future ahead for Ganor Dominic and who knows maybe in 5 years time it will become a global footwear brand with stockists worldwide. A must-watch brand for the years to come.
