This Month’s Featured Article

Jimmy Choo, Manolo Blahnik, Christian Louboutin, and Chanel. For every fabulous shoe out there, there’s an enthusiast eager to slip her foot inside to determine if that magic slipper suits her style.

Renowned aficionados range from the real world’s Imelda Marcos – the Philippines’ former First Lady who amassed a collection of more than 3,000 pairs of shoes – to the fictional Carrie character on Sex and the City who realized that she had invested $40,000 in 100 pairs of shoes that cost an average of $400 per pair. 

The proverb states that “the clothes make the man,” but Millbrook-based paper artist Linda Filley believes that “it’s the shoes that make the woman.” For as long as she can recall, Filley has always had an appreciation for design, a passion for fashion, and a desire to create.

Before she began crafting ornate shoe sculptures out of maps, journals, packaging material, and gift wrap, Filley designed paper dresses for store window displays.

It was old book-binding papers that her mother-in-law gifted to Filley in 2009 that inspired her to create the feminine, artistic, extraordinarily detailed shoe sculptures she’s become known for. The shoes are 11-inches long, vary in height from flats to stilettos, and cost approximately $225 each. 

Inspiration

“My inspiration comes from the paper that I find. An old music sheet turns into a long, pointy-toe slipper with roses, and a piece of discarded wallpaper becomes a high-heeled floral bouquet,” said Filley. Each shoe she creates flaunts an original design and is one of a kind.

As an artist, she recognizes beauty and finds inspiration in everyday scenes and items that typically go unnoticed by others, for example the organic, sinuous bend of a flower stem emerging from the earth, the impression of a picturesque scene after a long walk in the woods, or even a scrap of fabric left behind.

“You never know where inspiration comes from. Yesterday I was looking at a flower that had an interesting bend to it. A Goldfinch was picking at its seeds. That scene became an image in my mind for a shoe design. I am always looking for new viewpoints of flowers,” said Filley.

Filley’s earliest memory of “creating” or “being an artist” traces back to her childhood.

Although she was born in Glasgow, Scotland, within a few years her family relocated to Montreal, Canada. Between the two destinations, she was often immersed in city life. On weekends, her family usually traveled to the countryside.

“I grew up in the city and was a latchkey kid. I always kept busy by making things,” said Filley. For those unfamiliar with the term, a “latchkey kid” is a child who was left home alone or unsupervised for a significant portion of the day, typically after school, because their parents were working. The term “latchkey” refers to the key the child needs to enter the empty house.

Sketching her plans

Although Filley spent most of her life in cities, she shifted her lifestyle when she made a move in her late teens. Fueled by an adventurous spirit, Filley and her friend Reda dreamed of visiting Europe but didn’t have the necessary funding for an overseas escape. Instead, the duo opted for another type of escapade and hitchhiked to Cape Cod, MA. The duo shared a stint working at a pizzeria until they got fired two days later due to the amount of pizza they consumed. A new plan was needed.

“We heard of Martha’s Vineyard from a friend in Montreal and decided to go have a look. I got on the ferry and stayed there for ten years. That was my university,” said the artist who graduated from Wagar High School in Montreal in 1967.

Filley explained that, while living in Martha’s Vineyard she learned a lot about life and how to make ends meet by working a handful of different jobs. The list includes counting sea sponges, creating displays for a fish market that she ran, shucking scallops, stenciling clothes, and painting sea themes on canvas bags – perfect tokens of a beach getaway for the many tourists who flocked to the Vineyard. She also worked in a variety of retail shops. 

“Every summer, the world would come to the Vineyard. Becaue it’s an island, it was easy to meet people from all walks of life – from theater people to artists and fishermen,” said Filley.

“You do what you need to do to make a living up there,” said Filley. When the bleak days of January and February would cast their gloomy shadow over the Cape region, Filley would head to New York City, Boston, or Philadelphia for a change of pace and scenery. She spent her time visiting museums, taking classes, and working part-time gigs.

Filley finally fled the New England region when she met her future husband, Jonathan. 

Dresses & shoes

The artist ended up relocating to New York City with Jonathan before settling in Alpine, NJ. When the couple had their daughter, Grier, they began making trips up to the Hudson Valley where Jonathan’s grandmother lived.

After discovering an abandoned house, Linda and Jonathan purchased it, restored it, planted gardens, and created a weekend retreat. It served as their country house until about two decades ago when Millbrook became their full-time residence.

When her friend Maureen Missner opened Rhinebeck’s Paper Trail in 2008 along with her business partner Serine Hastings, Filley lent her visual talents to dressing the paper and gift boutique’s windows.

The spark to create dresses from discarded papers ignited when Maureen returned from a gift show with a wire mannequin and asked Filley to fashion something special for it. A few months later, the shop relocated to Montgomery Row and her “Paper Girl” dresses became the focus of the store’s front window display.

In 2010 Filley decided upon a flower girl-themed dress for the mannequin since it was wedding season. At the time, she was completely unaware that Chelsea Clinton’s upcoming nuptials were planned for the Astor Courts Estate in Rhinebeck that summer.

This proved to be serendipitous. Clinton’s wedding planners noticed the display in the window of Paper Trail and asked if they could whisk “Flower Girl” off to Clinton’s wedding luncheon, where it received lots of notoriety. 

Although Filley doesn’t generally take commissions, she made an exception when Clinton’s maid of honor commissioned her to create a replica of Chelsea’s bridal shoe. It was later gifted to the new bride. 

Fashion & flowers

Although Filley resides in a quaint village about 85 miles from the buzz of New York City, the pace, culture, high-end fashion, and vibe of big city life remains with her.

The granddaughter of a head gardener, Filley was always drawn to flowers even though she spent most of her life as a city dweller. “Although I lived in a courtyard in a city, I strung a rope across and grew morning glories,” she shared. At the time, Filley was only about nine years old.

The artist mentioned how much she appreciates Belgian fashion designer Dries Van Noten, who made prints using flowers from his own garden. She admires a host of other artists and designers, including the late Alexander McQueen – a British fashion designer and couturier renowned for his talent for tailoring and for imaginative designs that explored themes of romanticism, sexuality, and death. Some of McQueen’s best-known works include his skull scarf and armadillo shoes. His runway shows were celebrated for their drama, theatrics, and performance art. At the end of his spring/summer 1999 show in London, robots spray painted model Shalom Harlow as she donned a white dress and stood on a rotating platform. Vogue’s review stated that “It wasn’t a fashion show. It was performance art.”

“I adore fashion,” added Filley. Throughout the years, she was employed at fashion retailer Hudson’s Bay in Canada and at various fashion boutiques. She even stitched her own clothes.

Art driven

Filley also has a deep appreciation for the work of American painter, sculptor, and photographer Cy Twombly; Swiss visual artist Nicolas Party; American painter and sculptor, Donald Baechler; and Dutch garden designer, Piet Oudolf, who she applauds for his sense of texture.

It’s Party’s “incredible array of boldness and color” and Baechler’s “cartoony” style that captivate Filley. “I look at their work for inspiration because it’s so different from mine. I use it as inspiration, so I’m not creating everything so feminine and soft,” said Filley.

She also points to British painter Flora Yukhnovich’s contemporary interpretation of the rococo painting style and her use of color. “I find them so inspiring. It makes me want to go up to my studio and create,” said Filley.

The show circuit

Beyond her work being on display at Paper Trail, Filley had two shows at The Norfolk Library, Norfolk, CT: “Well Heeled” in March 2017 followed by “In These Shoes” in March 2024. 

In 2018, her shoe sculptures were on display in DK Schulman – a stationery and gift shop in New Preston, CT. Other exhibitions include Millbrook School’s Warner Gallery; Akin Free Library in Pawling, NY, and the Kent Art Association in Kent, CT.

At press time, Filley was working on a collection of shoes that will be photographed and spotlighted in a children’s fairytale. “This project is a little different because I have to read the story and then imagine what the shoes will look like,” said Filley. The editors of the book discovered her work when they were browsing the collection at Paper Trail, where her art is currently on display and available for purchase. •

To learn more about Linda Filley, you can visit her website at lindafilleypapershoes.com or at papertrailrhinebeck.com. Find her on Instagram @lindafilleypapershoes.