RIDING HIGH

Aristocratic shoe designer Eleanor Wellesley tells us why she's swapping Ascot-worthy espadrilles for jockey's silks

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Royal Ascot returns next week in all its glory: a heady mix of summer glamour, sporting excitement and royalty on parade.

But for shoe designer Eleanor Wellesley, it’s all about the horses — even if, for the past two years, her aunt and uncle the 9th Duke and the Duchess of Wellington, who are close friends of the King, have travelled in the first carriage of the royal procession with His Majesty and the Queen.

“I love to go down to the parade ring and watch the horses go down to the start line,” she tells us in this exclusive photoshoot at her home in West London, which is filled with “a lot of horsey photos”.

Eleanor, 29, is known for her elevated range of espadrilles, and one could say that shoe design is in her blood. The Wellesley family are descendants of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, after whom the famous boot was named, and who popularised the footwear after helping to secure victory at the Battle of Waterloo.

“I loved heels from an early age. I’ve always loved fashion, art, design,” says Eleanor, whose family are still society mainstays: her aunt, TV producer Lady Jane, dated Prince Charles in the 1970s, while her cousin Sofia Wellesley married singer-songwriter James Blunt in 2014.

Her father is Lord Christopher Wellesley, the youngest son of the 8th Duke of Wellington. Lord Christopher was married to Eleanor’s mother, Laura, until they separated in 2005.

Her love of the arts is evident throughout her home, where the walls are lined with “my other passion” - black-and-white fashion photography.