Jaguar Shoes on Kingsland Road has for a long time been a favoured hang out for creatives. Due to its laid-back attitude and adornment of ever changing art, the place resonates with the need to be relaxed and inspired. Also - together with a number of other independently owned boutiques, including Seventeen gallery and No One boutique - a formation has begun named The Jaguar Shoes Collective. It's aimed at bringing the venues together, along with collaborative artists to create instantly recognizable useful pieces of art including tea cups and t-shirts along with prints. 

The first creatives chosen for the collective are; art director Chrissie Abbott, commercial photographer Valerie Phillips, illustrator Jiro Bevis, founder of ‘Banjo Art Collective’ Marcus Oakley, illustrator Stevie Gee and author of Tales From Greenfuzz Will Sweeney.  Dazed Digital caught up with Chrissie Abbott and Valerie Phillips to find out a little bit more.

Dazed Digital: What is the JaguarShoes Collective?
Valerie Phillips: The Jaguar Shoes Collective, to me, is a bunch of amazing artists and illustrators making weird and random stuff, under the creative directorship of Vickie Hayward. She is fantastic at taking the crazy stuff in your brain and somehow making it possible as an art show, screen print, zine, china plate, t-shirt, enormous candy sculpture. If I wasn't involved, I'd be very jealous of those who were. So I'm really lucky I was asked to join their gang.

DD: What inspired your pieces for the project?
Valerie Phillips: Recently I've been getting my horse obsession out of my system a bit, with some b&w horse screen prints and a horse head t-shirt. I love the smell of sweaty horse when you finish riding for the day, in the baking Oklahoma summer sun. That was my inspiration.

DD: Where does your inspiration for your photography come from?
Valerie Phillips: The inspiration for my pictures comes from something different every day.
My personal projects come from a totally organic curiosity about people and the way their individual lives and characters can unfold in such differing ways. And, if it's possible to accurately capture and reflect those intangible (sometimes routine, sometimes magical) elements, in a photo book, or show.


DD: What are you working on now?
Valerie Phillips: At the moment I'm working on five very different book ideas and trying to decide which one to focus on and actually produce next. Also on trying to schedule all my work around the Liverpool FC match fixtures. And getting a yum yum from Greggs bakery.

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DD: What does the JaguarShoes Collective mean to you?
Chrissie Abbott: I see it as being a platform for artists, both up and coming and established to be involved in exhibitions, events and projects. For me personally its been great as I’ve got to work alongside and hang out with people who’s work I really respect. Its fun.

DD: What inspired your pieces for the project?
Chrissie Abbott: For the mugs and plates: I have recently been into Persian cats and also the occult so thought that this would be a nice opportunity to combine these things. The second tshirt design is based on the structures and patterns that cells form in nature. I used a similar placing as the first design as I wanted them to work as a series, the first one was based on patterns in space and clouds.

DD: What do you think it is about your artwork that fits so well for Little Boot's aesthetics?
Chrissie Abbott: I think that it works because we have such similar references and influences on our work but just have different ways of outputting, so there are parallels that just fit.

DD: What do you have planned now?
Chrissie Abbott: At the moment I am working on an album cover for a band called the koolaid electric company, a poster for the forthcoming print club blisters exhibition, and a few other exciting things are in the pipeline that I wont talk about because I am superstitious.