A few years ago, Kelley Williamson was told that walking in heels was no longer in the cards for her. She took that as a challenge – and a new business was born.
Williamson has just launched Kelley Kouture, a high heel footwear brand based in Richmond that earlier this month opened up presales for its first line of high heeled sandals and shoes.
The shoe line is geared toward a more comfortable heel experience for all women, featuring adjustable elements and supportive foot beds while keeping to an elegant style, Williamson said. The suede and leather shoes retail for around $600 per pair.
Kelley Kouture was inspired by Williamson’s journey through several cancer-related surgeries, including one that removed the ball of her foot. As a result, Williamson’s balance was affected and she was told by doctors that she should never wear heels again.
That led to her new life path and she’s since been working on the idea for the business for the past few years.
Williamson, 47, was born and raised in Virginia, and spent her early career working in data analytics before founding her own investment company, MacLaurin Group, in 2018. She later served as chief growth officer for companies like Boston-based Wellist and Richmond startup Kinis, along with currently serving on Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation’s board of directors.
Wearing high heels was part of her professional life, she said, and she was not happy hearing from doctors that her foot surgeries meant no heels in her future.
“The surgery removed the ball of my foot, I used to be a runner. I wasn’t gonna run anymore, but as someone who’s five-foot-something tall, heels were a very important part of my life. Especially showing up in technology and software and private equity and finance,” she said.
Despite not having a fashion industry background, Williamson said she wondered whether she could put together a shoe brand that could provide more stability and comfort than the average high heel, which she said can often be wobbly and painful.
Williamson resigned from her most recent role at Kinis in April of last year, and got to work, taking New York-based fashion entrepreneurship classes and bringing her ideas and story on a visit to several leather shoe manufacturing companies in southern Italy.
The debut line for Kelley Kouture came together after several more trips to Italy and with the help of businesses there such as a custom heel maker to a leather tannery.
“All that’s really important. Having my hands on it, touching it, seeing it, feeling it,” she said. “I’m doing that in-person.”
Kelley Kouture’s debut line features around 12 different pairs of shoes in a variety of colors. The line spans pumps, heeled sandals and slingbacks, as well as a few pairs of flats.
Options include the “Beverly,” a 3½-inch-heeled open toe sandal with a spool heel, the “Daring,” a kitten heel slingback shoe and the “Karma,” a classic leather or suede pump.
The shoes feature an array of comfort-focused elements, like a patented ‘K-heel’ design, which is split into two pieces to offer stability and footbeds that are designed to take pressure off of the ball of one’s foot, where it is often concentrated in a heeled shoe.
