EMMA HOPE

- Emma Hope grew up in Singapore and England

- Emma Hope graduated from The Cordwainers College in London

- There are three Emma Hope shops in London: in Sloane Square, Westbourne Grove and Islington

- The first Emma Hope flagship store in Japan opened in 2003 in Roppongi Hills, a leading shopping area in Tokyo

- Emma Hope has designed shoes for Paul Smith, Anna Sui and Mulberry

- Emma H

ope's shoes and bags are in over 150 stores worldwide including Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and Harrods

- All the shoes and bags are made in small, family owned factories in Tuscany, where they are specialists in the finest hand crafted shoe making techniques

- Emma Hope likes buying beautiful vintage bags, shoes and gloves at jumble sales and flea markets using them to rework and revive the old techniques of how they were originally made

- Emma Hope has recently launched a new collection of sneaker's for men and women. The sneakers have an old school feeling and are made in ponyskin, velvets or python and are calf lined. The Hope for Men and Emma Hope women's sneakers can be found in leading stores worldwide

- Famous Chelsea footballer, Frank Lampard, Kevin Spacey, Susan Sarandon and singer Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream wear the "joe" sneakers. Uma Thurman wears low cut ballet flats

- Emma Hope designed the shoes for Kiera Knightly and Rosamund Pike for the award winning film, Pride and Prejudice

- CNN recently made a lifestyle and work documentary on Emma, following her to South Africa, learning to play polo, surfing and making beaded bags with Monkey Biz, meeting their beaders in their workshop in the township of Khayelitsha which supports an aids wellness clinic in the centre of Cape Town

- Gifford's Circus commissioned Emma Hope to design some Moulin Rouge Boots for the trapeze artiste and chorus girls for their tour.

- Emma Hope has been commissioned by Vogue, Elle, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and Country Life to write and photograph articles about inspiration, music festivals, surfing, hunting, voodoo, fortune telling and cowboys

- Emma Hope's father was a Naval Captain who quelled a rebellion in the Maldives in 1959. When he was a little boy, the philosopher, Russell Bertrand taught him to ride a bicycle. Emma's mother writes and was a fashion journalist for the Sunday Times

- Emma Hope has won five Design Council Awards, the Martini Style Award, the Harpers & Queen Design Award, and the Clothes Show TV and D.T.I. accessories award

- In 2004 Emma Hope spoke at the Oxford Union against the motion 'High Fashion - do we pay too high a price?' defending quality and design against high street mass manufacturing