Mary Alice Dorrance Malone

Chemical engineer grandfather John T. Dorrance in 1897 developed method of canning condensed soup that used half as much water, reduced costs by a third. Result: Campbell Soup Co. Today world's biggest soupmaker. Sales: $7.9 billion in 2007. Stock up 4% in last 12 months. Mary Alice Malone was born and raised in the heart of the Pennsylvania countryside, in the United States of America. A talented dressage rider, she was selected for the Junior Olympic Equestrian Team at an early age. However, her restless desire for artisan design soon germinated to an enrolment in art school in Colorado. Engaging in the varying processes of furniture-making, welding, carpentry and upholstery, Mary Alice found her skill in her hands, settled into her new and lifelong vocation as a ‘Maker.’ This talent and craftsmanship came to rest in the design and creation of shoes and, specifically so, their place in a woman’s world. She honed her craft with the Cordwainers course at the London College of Fashion, further refining her skills at a number of renowned ateliers, before launching her own brand. Much unlike the industrial practice of Fashion informing Fashion, Mary Alice applies the tenement of Psychology to unravel the sensibilities of the needs of the quintessential girl and woman, around which the shoes are made. Private investor and President of Iron Spring Farm, Inc.