Rupert Sanderson Is a Master of Stealth Branding

You can tell a pair of Rupert Sanderson shoes a mile off, but it’s not down to a flashy logo. The designer, of whom Kate Middleton is a die-hard fan, favors a stealth approach to his branding.

It’s all down to that house signature Rupert Sanderson pebble. This season, the British designer is further asserting his ownership of the motif and having some fun with it.

Sure it still sits in solid form on the front of those pointy toe pumps, but for spring, he’s upped the ante and transformed the silhouette into misshapen links on a chain and wrapped it around the foot to make pretty summer sandals.

He’s amped up the volume and reimagined it in strass as a diamante buckle adorning sparkly lurex pumps and slingbacks, created miniature versions on the straps of his Mary Jane mules and magicked the outline into a wavy line edged in clear Perspex.

The Sanderson pebble is also a key component of the Dynamo sneaker he created for fall ’18 and which is now a key carryover style for the label.

“Everyone has to have a sneaker in their collection,” he said, “and our new sneakers are doing really well. I used sneaker language with the fastening but it’s clearly from me because of the pebble which becomes a kind of hitching post to secure the elastic.”

“I wanted to do a really pure expression of a sneaker and make it my own: line, form and a piece of branding. An opposite to those bedlam sneakers out there,” he said. What can he possibly mean?