Meet the founder
Vanessa Boulanger-Twigg on why she started Maévie, what she's building, and who she's building it for.
Vanessa Boulanger-Twigg is the founder of Maévie. She moved to London from Paris 27 years ago and has built her life here, with her husband, her children and a dog who
features more often than expected on her social media. She is, by her own description, a parent first. Maévie came out of that.
She didn't come from the shoe industry. She came from a problem she kept running into, year after year, whenever her daughter needed shoes. What started as a practical frustration became a research project, then a course, then a manufacturer in Portugal, then a brand.
What is the story behind Maévie? Why did you start it?
I started Maévie because I couldn't find shoes for my daughter. For us it had become one more thing, going from shop to shop, struggling with online shopping, never quite finding what we were looking for. But it wasn't really about the inconvenience. It was about not wanting her to feel different from her friends. That was the part I couldn't accept.
When you're the parent standing in a shop watching your daughter shrug and walk out empty-handed for the third time in an afternoon, you stop thinking about it as a practical problem. It becomes something else. I wanted to fix it. And when I looked at what existed and found it wasn't enough, I decided to make something myself.
When a teenage girl needs extended sizing and can't find it, what does that experience actually look like?
We can find trainers and sneakers. That part is manageable. But the moment she wants something else, pink Crocs, sandals, loafers, it gets difficult quickly. What I noticed was that she would just shrug it off. Act like it was nothing. Walk out of a store disappointed and not say much about it. That's the part that stayed with me. She'd already earned not to expect too much.
The further up the size range you go, the fewer the options. Online helps, but it mostly means women's styles. And women's styles are designed for adult women, not for a teenager who wants to look her age and feel like herself. The size might technically fit. Everything else about it might not.
Maévie doesn't use language like "bigger feet'.' Why was that an important decision?
Language matters for confidence. Having your size shouldn't come with a label that implies you're outside some preset standard that was never designed to represent you in the first place. Big is a word that tells a girl something about how the world sees her.
That said, I'm realistic. Most people searching for what Maévie offers will use this word, because this is the word they know and believe they should be categorise at. So we have to meet people where they are while also showing them a different way to think about it. You can hold both of those things at once.
You are building this brand before the product is available. What have you learned during the pre-launch period that surprised you?
That people connect to honesty long before they connect to product. I started sharing because I was trying to solve a real problem, and what surprised me was how many parents and girls immediately recognised themselves in the experience.
They didn't need to see the shoes. They needed to know that someone had seen them.
The brand has been shaped as much by those conversations as by my own experience. The identity of Maévie is partly mine and partly theirs. I think that's how it should be.
When a teenage girl or young woman finds Maévie for the first time, before she has bought anything, what do you want her to feel?
I want her to recognise herself. Not a version of herself that's been adjusted or made to feel grateful for being included. Just herself, reflected back.
For the girls who have spent years not finding their size, I want that moment of recognition to feel like something. Like the brand was made for her specifically, because in a very real sense it was.
What does Maévie look
like in two or three years, when it's working the way you want it to?
I want Maévie to be known as the brand that understands girls and includes extended sizing without apology. Not a niche brand, not a specialist brand, just a brand that was built for them when no one else was.
More than just shoes, I want it to feel like a space built around thoughtful design, confidence, style and community. Somewhere girls come back to, not just because they need shoes, but because it feels like it belongs to them.
What can people do right now to be part of it ?
Sign up for the newsletter on our website and follow us on social media. But more than that, get involved. Tell us your story. Tell us what you've struggled to find. Tell us what you'd want to see.
We're building with you. The more we hear from the girls and women who need this, the better what we make will be.
Want to participate
If you want to tell us a bit more about you and what you are looking for.