‘Kinky Boots’ Blue Plaque for Lacies Fantasy Girl shop in Folkestone

ByEd

Apr 23, 2023

From left: Sue ‘Lola’ Sheppard, Steve ‘Charlie’ Pateman, Simon Warren and ‘Dita Garbo’ leading Folkestone drag-queen Photo: Ray Duff

Story by Ray Duff – On Friday Folkestone Town Mayor, Cllr Nicola Keen and a crowd of well-wishers gathered for the unveiling of a Blue Plaque in Dover Road marking the story of the originator of the famous ‘Kinky Boots’ factory story, Sue Sheppard.

Cross-dressers, drag queens, and trans persons attended the unveiling, including ‘Nicola Devreux, from Tonbridge, who has just become ‘Miss Transliving, runner-up 2023’, and a huge fan of the whole Kinky Boots story and Heather Mackenzie, a trans person all the way from Washington State, in the USA.

The plaque on the shop window Photo: Ray Duff

Those attending were regaled as to how it was Sue, who first phoned Steve Pateman, who was also in attendance, back in 1999.

She recalled: “I was the person who originally contacted Steve with the idea of making women’s shoes and boots for men and cross-dressers.”

Steve recounted how, whilst initially rather skeptical, his shoe factory W.J.Brookes Ltd a traditional men’s only shoe factory in East Barton, Northants, was at that time in financial difficulties and may have had to close.

People gather for the unveiling Photo: Ray Duff

Steve, and some equally wary staff were eventually able to accept the concept of high- heeled thigh boots and so started to manufacture them and helped the shoe factory continue in business at the time.

Following Sue and Steve saying a few words, the Mayor officially unveiled the plaque, in the shop window, to mark the start of the story. The plaque itself was designed, with help from Sue and Steve, by Simon Warren of ‘Herebeforeus’, the Folkestone based local history plaque maker with several such already placed around the town.

The story, from an article in the Financial Times, eventually found it’s way onto BBC TV with a documentary, ‘Trouble at the Top – The Kinky Boot Factory’. This caught the attention of a film maker Nick Barton at Harbour Pictures who worked with Steve to make the 2005 film ‘Kinky Boots’ starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, as ‘Lola’ and Joel Edgerton, as ‘Charlie Price’, factory manager.

The story, whilst based on a true story, was changed in several respects.

From left – Folkestone Town Mayor Cllr Nicola Keen, Sue Sheppard and Steve Pateman

Following the success of the film, Harvey Fierstein, a US playwrite and actor living in New York, adapted the story further into a stage musical which debuted on Broadway to great acclaim, and then transferred to London.

Steve Pateman, the original ‘Charlie’, eventually went on to be a fireman, whilst also further developing the story of the boots and their ongoing success. He released a self-published book of the story in 2018 entitled: ‘Boss in Boots- From Barton to Broadway’.

Sue Sheppard, the original ‘Lola’ has continued to run her Lacies Fantasy-Girl lingerie shop in Dover Road, which was first opened in 1995, and has also become a well known local historian especially about the history of Dover Road itself.