“What’s a nice girl like me doing in a place like this?” Wright laughs. “Why wouldn’t a nice girl like me be in a place like this?” She adjusts her sunglasses, looking over her shoulder at the sunbakers on the North Bondi Rocks. Making passing comments about the weather is not Wright’s style, instead she talks about why we’re here – her shoes.

“They should be your shoes,” she smiles at her new range, laid out beside her.

She may call Bondi home, but Wright has graced the catwalks in Milan, Paris, and London; has been the face of wildly successful advertising campaigns, and has been voted, on more than a few occasions, World’s Sexiest Woman by multiple lads magazines. If that was not appealing enough, she made Savvy Style’s dream come true as the face of Jim Beam, and of Bondi Blonde – combining our two favourite things: alcohol and style (ahhh… what more could anybody want?).

It seems these days that almost every model, successful or otherwise, is trying to make big on eponymous brand extensions. Kate Moss, Elle McPherson, Megan Gale, and countless others have had a crack at the market, trying to make the most of their fifteen years (or minutes) of fame. In no way discounting their efforts, it should be noted that there is little likelihood that they conceived these brand extensions entirely of their own accord, unless of course, they have credentials in fashion design and product development. In contrast, Wright has the skills to back up the sell – what she puts her name to is her own work, and nobody else’s.

“I didn’t just wake up one morning and decide that I wanted to make shoes,” says Wright. “I am a cobbler. I designed them, I selected the materials, and I made them.”
She laughs, saying that her credentials have vested interests – her own. A self-confessed shoe-addict who is a “sucker for stilettos”, it seemed only logical feeding this habit should become her trade.

In this collection, her signature style, the enclosed-platform peep toe, is present with vengeance. With classic blacks teamed with snake prints and delicate ankle straps, these sky-high heels make sex on legs a tangible reality for every woman.

Each style is named after a woman she admires; the canary-yellow patent Tali is named after her Bondi-based stable mate, Tali Jatali; a more demure heel, Christina, and the lilac pump, Paris.

“If someone was to walk a mile in my shoes…,” Wright stops, laughing. “Who would do that?”

Keeping up with Wright would be no mean feat. This month, she is in LA, next month, who knows? Not content to stop at shoes, nor at a successful modelling career, Wright also manages her own brand, Wright Now. As principle of Jaime Wright Models, she has her sights set on all that is bigger and better.


See the Wright Stuff for yourself - www.jaimewright.com.au