The Making
How Maévie came to exist, what we learned along the way, and where we're going next.
Where It Started
Maévie started with a gap that should not have existed. A girl, young girl teenage girl in extended sizing, wanting the shoes her friends were wearing, and finding that they simply did not exist for her. Not in her size, not in her aesthetic, not for who she actually was. Now a teenage girl in extended sizing, she’s facing the same challenges.
Vanessa Boulanger-Twigg, the founder of Maévie, watched that happen with her own daughter. The options narrowed year by year. What was left was not designed for who she was or the stage of life she was in.
That is where Maévie started.
Learning the Craft
Our first instinct was to find what already existed and bring it together. But looking hard at what the women's extended sizing market actually offered, we reached the same conclusion we'd reached in the shops. It wasn't there.
So we decided to make them.
Vanessa came to footwear with no industry background and treated that as a reason to learn properly rather than a road block. The British Footwear Association, books on shoe construction and the history of design, conversations with podiatrists and courses in the craft itself. The foundation came before the decisions.
Where the shoes are made was an important consideration. For manufacturing, For us, Europe was the only option consideration. The craftsmanship, the material standards, the proximity to our design process.. We researched factories, worked with an agent, visited suppliers and learned the industry properly before committing. Our manufacturer is in Portugal, chosen for their craft, and their understanding of what we are building and because we believe the alternative to fast fashion is lasting fashion.
How We Design
The design process at Maévie starts with observation. Vanessa moves through London, Paris and other cities she’s visiting looking for inspiration: in shops, in museums, in books about fashion and shoe history. She watches what teenagers are actually wearing, what they gravitate toward, what makes them feel like themselves. Her daughter, and her daughter's friends, her nieces are all part of that - . And So is her son.
When a direction forms it goes to a designer with a specific brief. Classic styles, considered for teenagers, set between London and Paris. Width, insole, fastening, every detail that matters for extended sizing. Her daughter contributes, showing what a Pinterest board of the shoes she actually wants. They review the proposed styles together and choose.
From there, our manufacturer produces samples. They come back, get tried, get considered properly: not just whether they look right but whether they move right, sit right, work for the proportions and the life it was designed for. Comments go back. Adjustments are made.
Another sample arrives. The process repeats until there is nothing left to question. For our first style, that took three rounds.
The fit is never assumed. There is a checklist and every element of the shoe tested against what a teenage girl or young woman in extended sizing actually needs from it. Not just whether the size is there, but whether the width is right, whether the fastening holds, whether the sole gives enough grip for a more active day. Getting the size right is the starting point.
Getting everything else right is the work. That distinction is what Maévie is built on.
What We're Building Toward
The first design is being finalised. The next milestone is reaching the girls and young women who have spent years navigating the same gap we were built to close.
The longer measure of success is simpler. Whether the shoes get worn as often as her trainers. Comfortable enough, considered enough, that they become a genuine part of how she dresses rather than a compromise she lives with.
If that happens, it means Maévie got it right.
There is no end point to this. The plan is to keep following what girls and young women in extended sizing actually want to wear, keep designing for that, and keep building in the open.
