As a child, he recalls discovering a drawing at the Museum of African art, which showed a woman's sharp-heeled shoe, crossed out with a vivid red line. The image, which dated back to the 1950's and was intended to safeguard the museum's parquet floor, fascinated him. He had never seen such a shoe, which in its fine delicacy was in sharp contrast to the prevailing 1970s trends for flat or clunky heeled shoes, and the image never left him