Weller, in fact, had been working for a number of years behind the scenes for designers including John Richmond, Bruno Magli and Hugo Boss, as a well as many major mainstream shoe brands. “I wanted to get a really broad strong experience of shoe manufacturing. The whole process,” she explains. The 28 year old is originally from a small hamlet in Gloucestershire but is based in the heart of Hoxton. After studying a foundation course in Cheltenham, where she specialised in and became passionate about sculpture, she did her BA in footwear at Cordwainers College. Weller is a kind of classic British eccentric. Enthusiastic, leftfield, uncontainable and simmering with nervous energy.

Shoes, rather than womenswear, always fascinated her - partly due to a sheer geeky love of the technical process. “Shoes are like small sculptural buildings in their own right. I love womenswear, but have never considered doing it myself,” she explains. “I just love the challenge, the technical restrains of footwear. And I enjoy the materials - conventional leather or unconventional wood, plastic and polystyrene!”

She first came to our attention when working with Gareth Pugh, customising shoes by shrink-wrapping them before they went on the catwalk. When Henry Holland launched House of Holland’s first runway collection, Atalanta was an obvious choice for collaboration. Like Holland, Atalanta is drawn to strong graphic imagery. Cue exaggerated, super-high modernist platforms and black tartan trimmed shoes with literally acres of haphazard vibrant laces. This season, alongside Holland, she has also designed a range for young guns Sinha-Stanic and her own range is in the pipeline.

Atalanta’s work is constantly about pushing materials and methods. “I love Salvatore Ferragamo – the original Ferragamo. He was the first to use raffia, to use cork. Materials that had never been used before,” she enthuses. It makes sense that Weller shares a studio and workshop with product and furniture designers, experimenting with the basics of shoe design, rather than in a more obvious ‘fashion’ environment.

Alongside her shoes with Holland, Atalanta continues to make a number of specially commissioned one off pieces of footwear for shoots. Here her exaggerated shapes and innovative materials go into overdrive. The platforms gain feet not inches. She removes heels altogether, she weaves leather shapes, and once, for an experimental exhibition, she created a pair of metal and rubber stilettos out of car parts. Weller’s shoes are really art in disguise.

Francesca Gavin

www.atalantaweller.com