‘Once the shoes get you there’s no escape’: Claire Burrows on how she set up Air & Grace

Claire Burrows felt as if she was ‘making stuff that didn’t need to be made’. So in 2014 she bravely ditched the nine-to-five job and set up Air & Grace, writes Andy Martin

Claire Burrows says her shoes are designed to be comfortable without sacrificing style (Air & Grace)

There is nothing more miserable than a day in uncomfortable shoes,” says Claire Burrows. If you’re a woman, her shoes, Air & Grace, are designed to save you from that sorry fate. But without having to sacrifice style.

Burrows has now been in shoes for 25 years, but she didn’t set out to be a shoemaker. By the age of 18 she was making all her own clothes to go out clubbing in and went to the London College of Fashion on Oxford Street. “We were all wearing DMs back then,” she says. She was six feet tall and definitely didn’t need heels. “I never really considered shoes. I thought I’d be a clothing buyer,” she says. But her first job was with Office footwear and she was hooked. “Once the shoes get you there’s no escape.”

She went from working for the likes of Kurt Geiger and Oasis to Fitflop. “It was like you had to choose: style or comfort. I wanted to do both.” She didn’t like the bulky, ergonomic look, the dreaded “orthopaedic” shoe. But she had also fallen out of love with high-street fashion. “I didn’t like the disposability of fashion. I felt it was wrong. A good shoe is always good. It’s timeless. It shouldn’t have a sell-by date.”