It Takes a Village… and Apparently a Shoe

• Posted on 3 October 2026
• 0

The Making and Designing of Miss Virignia 250th Shoe

It Takes a Village… and Apparently a Shoe

When I was asked to create a shoe for Miss Virginia celebrating Virginia’s 250th, I knew immediately that I didn’t want to just make a pretty shoe.

I wanted it to feel like Virginia. More specifically, I wanted it to feel like our little corner of Virginia.

I’ve owned The Shoe Attic for 13 years, right here in Williamsburg, and one of my favorite things about being a small business owner has always been the people around me. We have so many insanely talented artists, makers, historians, creatives, and small business owners in this town. So when this project came along, it somehow became much bigger than me sitting down and decorating a pair of shoes.

It became a collaboration.

And honestly, that ended up being my favorite part of the entire thing.

The shoes themselves tell little pieces of Virginia’s story. One features a Fife & Drum design, along with a miniature Governor’s Palace on the heel and a tiny drum with crossed drumsticks on the toe. The other incorporates the Betsy Ross flag, a buckle, fireworks, and nods to Virginia’s 250th celebration.

But actually making all of those ideas happen meant asking for help—and I am SO glad I did.

I was able to pull inspiration, ideas, talent, and actual tiny works of art from people right here in our community. There were conversations that started with some version of, “Okay, I have a slightly crazy idea…” and somehow people not only understood what I was trying to do, but helped make it better.

That is probably what I will remember most about this project.

Yes, I got to make a pair of shoes for Miss Virginia—which is a pretty surreal sentence for someone who has spent the last 14 years surrounded by shoes every single day—but I also got a reminder of just how special it is to own a small business in Williamsburg.

Small businesses don’t really exist in little bubbles. We borrow ideas from each other. We recommend each other. We ask each other for help. We know the artists, the makers, the customers, the people who have lived here forever and the people who just arrived. Somewhere along the way, all of those people become part of the story of your business.

And this shoe has a LOT of people in its story.

There were so many moments during the process when I looked at what someone had created or suggested and thought, YES. That’s it. Something I never could have made entirely on my own suddenly looked exactly like the thing I had pictured in my head.

As someone with a Fine Arts degree who somehow ended up owning a shoe store, this project also felt a little bit like two parts of my life getting to meet again. I got to make something weird and creative and incredibly detailed—but I also got to do it through the store and community that I’ve spent more than a decade building.

And maybe that is why this project has meant so much to me.

The finished shoes celebrate 250 years of Virginia, but for me, they also celebrate the people who make this place what it is.

I may have been the one crazy enough to say, “Sure, I’ll make the shoe!”

But I definitely didn’t make it alone.

And I wouldn’t have wanted to.