LAUGH YOUR WAY OUT OF A CRISIS

My parents were very supportive of my ambition to become a shoe designer. My journalist mother particularly — and practically so. she was a fashion editor in the Fifties and went to paris for all the shows.

When I was a teenager she would take me and my sister to jumble sales to elbow through piles of clothes for treasures to dress up in on saturday nights. We found skinny pencil skirts and oversized camel coats with silk velvet-lined pockets.

I became addicted to beautifully made old clothes, but there were never any shoes. I imagined stunning satin designs and embroidered velvet heels — so I decided to make them myself.

My father was a naval officer in World War II and I relied on his problemsolving abilities when my business was taking off. I would ask him advice and he would think of a practical solution.

I have a favourite picture of him, smart and useful in white shorts and captain’s hat, standing on the bridge of his ship with his men around him, navigating her into the notoriously tricky sydney harbour. He is so calm, when he must have been under so much pressure.

My father greeted any problem by saying what a joke it was and taught me to laugh to find my way out of any crisis. He would always say, in the words of Mae West: ‘One at a time boys, please.’ then he’d take out a sheet of paper, write down my problems and work out with me how to solve them, one by one.

It is my mother’s passion for lovely clothes and the memory of my father’s spectacular calm in a crisis that I draw on when I don’t know what to do.

even now, when I’m trying to get the last embroideries and new raffia samples from India and Morocco, the strategic organisation involved in getting them produced on time comes down to an exercise in naval planning.

Emma HopE designed shoes for anna Sui’s Spring 2018 runway show at New York Fashion Week — emmahope.com