Now we are truely famous at Lacies folkestone, the souths only transgender store.

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.

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.