Annie Abbott

In her shoes. We follow a day in the life of Melbourne shoe designer Annie Abbott of Habbot Studios.

Part I:

I wake up around six and check my emails before dragging myself out of bed to visit the gym or walk around the block to wake up – or sometimes neither if I’m feeling too pushed for time! At 7.30 I’ll either make a quick trip into the city to deliver special custom order stock to the two city stores, or a longer visit to put up new window installations. I love a bit of window visual merchandising and I'm on very good terms with my ladder. By nine I arrive at my office and get straight into the next batch of emails. Then my day can go in a million directions from here.

Part II:

I often skip lunch (unintentionally) but if I’m in the office then it’s often brown rice and chilli oil tuna, or an overpriced sandwich or salad. This is most definitely eaten at my desk when it’s just me, but other days I eat out the back of the shop with the team in the sun. The time after lunch just flies. I usually spend the afternoon doing admin of some sort, fulfilling press requests, running to the post office or putting out any little fires or unexpected things. I often find myself serving customers on the shop floor too which I love.

Part III:

My new routine is to try to leave the office around 7pm and go home for dinner and a bit of couch time. My husband used to travel all the time with his job so I worked every night until about 11pm, but he has changed jobs and is now home much more which is a really brilliant thing for us both. I usually save the ‘fun’ or ‘easy’ jobs to do at home on the couch so that I can have one eye on the computer and the other eye on criminal minds or modern family! I know it’s not particularly enriching, but I love a bit of slothy TV time just to wind down at the end of the day.

"The best part of the day is when I attempt to read in bed. I get about three pages in and then usually fall asleep. But it's really important for me to have that little wedge between work and rest to tell my brain that it's time to turn off."
– Annie Abbott.