After graduating from Assumption College, Donovan went to work for the phone company. Now, if ever there's an archtype Worcester job, it's working for the phone company. Steady work. Good benefits. Pension. Security. I grew up in a neighborhood where a lot of people worked for the phone company. At that time, it was New England Telephone, which turned into Nynex, which turned into Verizon. Part of my escape from Worcester was motivated by not wanting to work for the phone company. Fast forward a bunch o' decades, and didn't I find myself working for an Internet Services Provider (Genuity) that became part of - TA-DA - Verizon.
In his heart of hearts, Chris Donovan was a shoe designer. (Which is, Worcester-wise, kind of interesting, as Worcester had shoe manufacturing back in the day. Nothing fashionable, mind you. I worked one summer on the assembly line at H.H. Brown Shoe, where we made combat boots and work boots.)
He began focusing on shoes when he was in high school, and the girls began wearing platform shoes - "sculpture"..."works of art." (The high school is an unnamed Catholic high school, but I'm guessing St. Peter's, which is where my sister Trish went. She would have been a year or so behind him, but the colorful, funky, chunky platforms she and her friends wore may have helped inspire Donovan.)
As he approached his 50s, Donovan began to question his life’s path. “You spend all your free time drawing shoes, why are you spending eight to ten hours a day trudging through life?” his husband Stephan Wierzbicki recalled telling him. (Source: Boston Globe)
And so he relo'd to Providence so he could go to night school at Rhode Island School of Design. Then there was a bout with prostate cancer. An "if not now, when" epiphany. Retirement. And a crash course in shoe design in New York City. The course instructor, Aki Choklat, who encouraged him to study at Polimoda, Italy's most prominent fashion design school.
So, off to Florence went Donovan. Where he found his vision/voice.
In a design he submitted for an AARP-sponsored Project Runway contest, he used a gnarled trunk of a lilac bush from his yard in Fairhaven as the heel of a reimagined 1970s double-ring moccasin.
Project Runway host Tim Gunn loved it. “Have I seen this before? No,” Gunn marveled in an AARP video that got 5 million views. “Does the world need this? Yes.” Donovan won the contest, and the exposure offered an inroad into European footwear market...He has an agent and a high-end factory manufacturing his designs. Museums are taking an interest in his work. And:
Now, as he has launched his first line of Italian-made women’s shoes, he’s being hailed by his mentors as the next footwear superstar, the next Manolo Blahnik.
He's also being compared to Salvatore Ferragamo and Christian Louboutin. Pretty heady stuff for a guy from Worcester who worked for the phone company. Glory for those with guts and talent!
I'm not the audience for Chris Donovan's shoes. Even if I were willing to pay $895 and suffer foot discomfort for the white and black crazy-arse bootie pictured above, I'd have two broken ankles within minutes. And I wouldn't want Medicare to have to pay for that. Not that I was ever a fashionista, but these days I'm all about the comfort and durability. If you can't walk 5 miles a day in it, no thanks.
But many of his designs are gorgeous. And he even has flats, like this stunning number. If I were the sort of gal who'd pay $385 for a pair of shiny blue shoes, well, I'd consider this pair.
How can you not wish Chris Donovan nothing but tremendous success. Even if I'd find that most of his shoes wouldn't feel good on this old lady's long skinny feet, what's not to like about this feel good story. (Bonus points for being about a Worcester boy making good.)
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