Let me share with you

We have received from Eugenia Martinez de Irujo (Spanish Aristocrat) this nice letter as thanks from a pair of shoes we made her!

Two weeks ago I was in Milan and took the opportunity to visit Vigevano, a town near Milan where they have made and are still making a high quality footwear and in which there is a Footwear Museum. When I got to the Museum I asked to view the files and the lady went looking for someone that could attend me better…… and then appeared Armando Pollini !!! It was exciting and interesting knowing him ; we visit the musueum together and he showed me showcase after showcase.


http://museodellacalzatura.jimdo.com/

María Barros - Autumn Winter 2012/2013

We had the pleasure of taking part a few days ago with our shoes in the fashion show of the Spanish designer, Maria Barros, "Through this collection I wish to tell you a story, my story, my world," said the Galician designer.

My name is Elisabet and I´m a 28 year old designer from Reykjavik, Iceland. My label Babette came to life in the begining of 2010, soon after I made my very first pair of Babette´s.

I have always had interest in fashion and designing and have been creating things ever since I remember. Much of it comes from my mother who always made clothes, costumes and even doll clothes by hand for me and my sisters when we were little. I started very young making my own patterns and started sewing all kinds of costumes and clothes for my self and others.

I have a lot of plane, boring black shoes and one day I wanted to make something pretty and different to pop them up a little. After I made my first pair and started wearing them out I had alot of people asking me where they could possibly buy some!!!

After many requests I decided to make a few pieces and put up a website (www.babette.is) and soon after that I got the oppurtunity of selling and taking part in the POP UP market, which is a new project of young and upcoming designers in Iceland. Now, I also sell them in a beautiful shop downtown Reykjavik, named GK Reykjavik.

The name of my label, Babette is the french version of my name Elisabet, it was the perfect fit because my pieces are very parisian, romantic and fun!!

Each and every piece I make is unique and delicately hand made by myself. I use all kinds of different materials, vintage ones, leather and whatever inspires me each time. I have always loved and been inspired by the victorian times and that´s also where I get some of my ideas from.

Chie Mihara is my favourite shoe designer and I love to wear my Babette´s with her shoes, they are so special and make my pieces look even more beautiful!


You can see and request my pieces here:
www.babette.is

Babette on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001551506358

Here´s a photo of me and mine ;)

Enjoy!

Love,
Elisabet

We have participated with our shoes in the Spanish film “Buscando a Eimish” (Finding Eimish) under direction of Ana Rodríguez. It’s about finding your place in the world. It talks about intuition, the destiny and the invisible energies that create bonds between people. It was filmed in Spain, Germany and Italy. The actors are Óscar Jaenada, Emma Suárez, Manuela Vallés, …
Being presented in cinemas soon!!

Great windows at KaDeWe-Berlin fall-winter 2011!!
One of the best luxury department stores in Germany!

Kaufhaus des Westens
Tauentzienstraße 21–24
10789 Berlin

+49 30 2121 0

www.kadewe.de

HEY is a shop in Deisenhofen-Germany that carries only Chie Mihara shoes along with handbags and small accessories from other brands. Every detail works so nicely to create this magic atmosphere! the lamps, furnitures, the colours…just beautiful!

HEY
Bahnhof Str. 14
Deisenhofen 82041
Germany
+49 1713065054

www.hey-deisenhofen.de

I was invited by Guy Thiron, he has a very nice shop in Antwerpen, for the second aniversary of his shop. He and his wife Kirsti organized a full morning of press interviews. They even closed the shop from 9am to 2pm (with a note on the window) only for me ! That was funny, because it seemed like more people wanted to pop in the store to see what was happening!
The Belgium press was very nice and professional, so we hope there's good upcomming press stories on this event!
Antwerpen is such a nice town! You breath asthetics everywhere! Good taste!
I recommend a very nice hotel I stayed called Sleeping at Linnen (www.sleepingatlinnen.be), there's only 3 rooms and the owner (an english dandy!!) also runs a cocktel bar nextdoor called Cocktails at Nine www.cocktailsatnine.be

I'm really glad to show us the preview of the pages included in the italian book: SCARPE, i modelli che hanno fatto la storia della moda. (from 40’s to nowadays).

The book, realized by Ilaria Danieli, managing editor of Vogue Pelle, is very nice and cool and it’s already distributed through the most important italian book shops.

Hakone-Japan

I was in Japan for a week with my kids and husband. We were in Tokyo for 5 days and 2 days in an "onsen" (natural vulcanic baths) at Hakone district, where Fuji mountain is.

Japan is always a place where I find myself at home. I love the way japanese cherish and respect nature.

I was also at the Bunka Fashion College giving a chat about shoes. It was very interesting to see the work of the students, really arty and full of immagination!!

I was so happy to be there! in the end they made us T shirts of our family picture printed on it!! really thoughtful!

I’ve been drawing since I was little…(I think this is how all illustrators start their biographies!). And not only drawings: made pottery, collages with any piece of paper, ornaments with flowers from the garden. If I found a piece of wire I could stay hours playing with it…
I always loved to do things with my hands… love to draw, but also enjoy making cakes, restore old furniture’s, sew pieces of cloths and even hanging paintings at home!

Don’t get me wrong, I do all these things with the same intellectual or emotional intensity that I can make a book, with the same passion, because it fascinates me – and in others - the ability to create, build, invent...

I studied illustration at the Ecola Massana Barcelona and later I went to France to do a post-graduate in Strasbourg and Marseille. In 2001 I started my professional career "officially". I think on those years and my work was a mixture of love with what I do, a little "savoir faire"(suppose)…being constant and also much, much luck! (that of being in the right place and in the right time…).

What I want to communicate with my work and what inspires me can be quite different from one day to other . One day, walking around Barcelona I see an interesting building (walk aimlessly around the city is one of my favorite activities), combination of colors, seeing shoes (like Chie´s!)can’t stop looking, observing things! … Later appear in my illustrations, transformed in how I remembered things. Wished everyone could see the beautiful things I see around!
When I was little, my parents, teachers, brothers, friends... always told me "Mariona is happy watching spiders". I don’t look shrews! What I see around is a bunch of fascinating things that traps me!

a goal?

Now I do what I want and fortunately can live (well) of it… Professionally I feel accomplished: I published a few books, I had some prizes, I have my own illustration studio with my friend and illustrator, Rebecca Luciani... you can always ask for more!! but perhaps my goal is to continue having the luxury of working in something that I love and with freedom, without excessive pressure, having time for me, for my family…etc

Also you teach? What do you think about new illustrators?

There are people with great talent, restless, with great work… others are very willing but less talented. Some encountered illustration almost by chance … In any case I have to say that I encountered with a few real artists! With lots of potential (I would love to join their workshop if they organized it!) Unfortunately, I think that boys and girls graduating from illustration schools today have a very difficult time finding jobs. They find with this sector, the publisher, which is, in many cases, increasingly directed by marketing department, lower prices, more competition…
Nevertheless, I always encourage them to start. Become an illustrator and live of it is a slow cooking dish, requires lots of patience. It’s not easy, but luckily there are still some good publishers and new formats where the illustration can be applied.

Are you using digital techniques? Or graphic design programs to give some effects to your drawings?

Yes, basically using Photoshop. My work always or almost always is manual, but digital has helped me to solve some technical aspects in less time.

Children's illustration is something very specific... would you like to change? fashion illustration or else?

Of course! But I wouldn't say change, but "add". In fact, when others proposed me to work in different areas, adapting and changing my work to their needs , I was delighted. Recently I was asked for drawings to use in large vinyl decorative panels. It's great to see your artwork on a wall, for a change! Many times I thought entering in the world of fashion, pattern design; even I would love to do costume design for theatre (one of the things I enjoy a lot when I think how would I dress the characters of my books). For various reasons I never jumped into it, I don't have any experience…but time to time!

What else you do besides illustration?

My priority: my son, Martin, age 5. Being a mother is not a profession …but an intense dedication.
Another of my activities is dancing. Two years attending classes on "Five rhythms", comes from United States. With dancing, I discovered a new creative space and of "self-exploration". A great and amazing contrast, coming from a profession like mine so static

What do you think or feel about Chie’s work? What is the message in her product?

When I met Chie’s work (the first time I saw her shoes was online) I was fascinated. Your shoes are small sculptures. And the best: after I discovered that you can comfortably walk on them! Many times I have recommended to my friends, friends and colleagues of profession to your website to know what you do, admire and be surprised by your shoes. It transmit to me, beauty, creativity, daring, feminity, delicacy love the colors, textures, volumes… you can see that you put a lot of love in your work!


www.marionacabassa.es

We have participated with our shoes in the spanish movie "De tu ventana a la mía" by Paula Ortiz. Casting Maribel Verdú, Leticia Dolera, Luisa Gavasa, Fran Perea, Álex Angulo... etc. This film tells the stories of three women of different ages and different times, rememoring their lives in the window...

We met Miriam Pertegato through "Street Shots". She sent us a picture together with an illustration of her wedding day with our shoes. Since then we're interested in Miriam and her work!

Looking at the images of people and especially women- offered by media nowadays, I realised that they are conceived as merely decorative objects. In Italy in the last few years this idea is getting stronger and stronger. When I look at someone my intent is in trying to recognise her authentic expressivity, the real human identity hidden behind the appearance, beyond the surface of beauty.

I portrait only people that are close to me and that I like, and I use the painting technique because I want to live and discuss every centimetre of my work, having not only a conceptual approach but also a physical one with it. Often I have the need to use naked bodies to get the most pure image. People who see my paintings have to perceive the feeling of being in front of an intimate image isolated from every geographical or historical context. For this reason such intimate and isolated image is monumental. I often paint self-portraits to observe myself deeply. In my complete self-portrait I offer my naked body to external judgments as a manifesto of my painting.

I am also the main subject of my drawing, but my drawing conception differs from my painting one. In my painting I look at me closely, but in my drawing I catch images from my mind and I develop them following the sign on paper in a way that is even faster than my thoughts, as I could see myself from above acting in a place where there is no weight and no logical rules.

I love to see people looking at my drawings and being a little suprised, they often smile. One time I saw a friend of mine starts to cry deeply moved, can't ask for more.

Why did you decide become an artist? What your parents thought about it?


I don’t remember exactly when I decided to become a painter, I’ve always played with colours and brushes. I think I decided to be an artist just because I could not do anything else with the same devotion. When I was 14 I say to my parents: “ok, I’m going to the High School of Art, if you mind it I’ll stop my studies and I’ll find a job”. My parents were pretty shocked about my determination but they decided to follow me very sweetly on my interest, in the years they have been incredulous, inexpert on my field, but happy to see that I was right. Later I got the Fine Arts Diploma on Painting and few years later I start to teach Painting on the same Fine Arts Academy where I was student. I guess that my greatest luck is that I’ve always known what I wanted to do.

People say that art is always in crisis, what do you think? You live well being an artist?

I live day by day, it is not easy because I just gain the money to cover my costs, somebody might say that “going to work could be even worst” but if it would be necessary I could go back to whatever job, I did it in the past and I can do it again. So far I can say that I’ve been lucky. By the way, I believe that Art is something that could never be in crisis, it is a human need, is the concept of an artist as a normal worker wich is in crisis, specially in my country, to be able to paint is not a “divine gift” it's a respectful profession like any other...

What type of art don't you understand?

I don’t understand works of art based on complicated hidden meanings that needs of a long text of explanation; I have no prejudices about the media, I can fall in love with a performance, or a video installation or with a simple painting in the same way, but every work of art has to be strongly communicative by itself.



If you were a thief of pieces of art, what you would steal and where?

“The Mother’s Portrait” by James Abbott Whistler, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

It is a perfect painting, it has no time.



Where would you like to see your work exposed? Executives' offices or museums full of tourists?

In a small museum, not too full of tourists but very well built, with natural light from the ceiling, better close to a garden.

Do you listen to music while you are working? what music do you listen?

I need always music. I select the type depending on my mood, the season and the weather outside. Lately I’m listening Noah and the Whale, The Welcome Wagon, Fleet Foxes, Beirut and stuff like this.

Painters and writers are solitary professions, would you like to have companions of work?

I love to work with other people! Most of the time I am alone and I am the only one who can criticize what I am doing, working with other artists is a great opportunity to improve from different point of wiew and reach some solutions I’ve never expect before. I wouldn’t mind to work in a team-project.

What's your favorite pictorial technique?

Actually my favourite media it is “pen on paper”: pen on paper with few drops of watercolour is just what I need to express urgently what is on my mind. When I draw I’m free, I never think that I have to create a piece of art and I can draw wherever I am. Drawing sometimes is faster than thinking and it happens often to be surprised by my own creations

What painter would you have liked to know? Who's your favorite painter?

I would like to have known most Giotto, Michelangelo, Pontormo, Lorenzo Lotto, Caravaggio, Rembrandt ….so hard! In the contemporary actually I love Peter Doig because of his paintings are pure, simple and evocative, he works like he doesn’t care too much about the technique or to show something simply beautiful, he use just his own memories to give us moving images (but also I would like a lot to know Lucien Freud).

People say that fashion is an art so banal that has to change every 6 months, what do you think? Do you believe that it is true?

Well, it depends on what I consider fashion, if fashion means just to buy the topic item of the season I think I couldn’t care less and yes, it is quiet banal. My mother always worked in fashion knitwear and I grown up seeing beautiful dresses designed by greatest designer of ever, Armani, Valentino, Lanvin, Sonia Rykiel, Alaia an so on. From my mother I learnt to love fashion as a kind of art, when I can see the quality, the work and the idea that is behind an item I feel myself grateful to the designer for have invented it, even if I cannot afford it.

Who's your favorite designers? What do you think of fashion, trends...

My favourite designers are Sonia Rykiel, Alaia and Orsola De Castro, a woman that I met few years ago that has created a brand called “From Somewhere” (www.fromsomewhere.co.uk) her style is really feminal, and completely unconventional and even ecological.

I love things that remind me myself personality, for me choose the clothes to wear with no too obsession is like playing and it doesn’t means to spend a lot of money, I haven’t money, I don’t like clothes just sexy but I love skirts, feminal clothes but easy to wear up, I love ironic details because I don’t like to take myself too seriously.

Why Chie's shoes for your wedding?

When I decided to marry me the problem was to find something close to my style and not just to become the tipical plastic bride on the wedding cake. For the dress I went straight for an Alaia dress, amazing fabric, simple shape, funny and romantic at the same time, with the shoes I went mad because it seemed their were only selling nun’s shoes or, as an alternative, super sexy aggressive stuff. It was becoming an obsession, seriously, since one sunny day a designer friend of mine suggested me to look for Chie Mihara shoes , I didn’t know her before but suddenly I fell in love with her style. I found my model: “Omage”, romantic and funny and little bit retro designed as a sandal of the 18th century, perfect with my dress exactly as a cherry on a big cake…even if I still don’t know which were the cherry and which were the cake.



Send your comments to Miriam
miriampertegato@yahoo.it

Golden Shoes by Thordis Rüggeberg

Thordis Rüggeberg is a fantastic photographer. She bought a pair of "GOLDEN SHOES" and she did these wonderful photos. We've also done an interview on her. I 'm really pleased to show you her work. Look how interesting!!

Tell me about your background...where you are from, your age, your studies...

I was born in Wuppertal, Germany, in March, 1968, that means I´m 42 years old today in 2010. For about twelve years, I´ve been living and working in Hamburg now. After school I studied Art and English Literature. On my first day in the Art Department, I was sure there was a great painter loitering somewhere deep inside of me, just dying to get out. Well, with a little help from some merciless tutors I soon found out that guy never existed... I discovered the photographer instead. After I had exposed, developed and printed my first black-and-white-negative film, I was on the hook. I still am, even though technically many things and processes have changed because of the digital possibilities.

Tell me what do you want to express in your photography? what you look for, what makes you say "wow"!!

I´m a still-life photographer, that´s for sure. If I take pictures of people at all, it´s in a very stage-managed way, I arrange those guys in a room as if they were furniture. Pictures worth being taken are everywhere. I like the banalities of every-day-life, I might get excited over an empty plastic bag on the street or a chewing-gum stain shaped like a butterfly. I especially like absurd scenarios or things that seem out of place, as in the „Golden Shoes“-series. To me, a funny aspect is always important, a tongue-in-cheek side to everything.

You can see examples of my work on www.ablage-f.de



Why the golden shoes?

People usually hardly believe me, but I´m not at all a fashionista. In fact I´m not much interested in what´s going on around me concerning style and trends. I´m one of the supposedly very few women in the western world who never saw a single minute of "Sex and the City“. I know these things exist, though... my general attitude towards everything is: "Don´t believe the hype.“

So, when I saw your golden shoes in a shopping window, it was not just that "I have to have these"-kind of thing that women are said to experience whenever they see a pair of shoes. The colour is extravagant, but the broad heels are kind of down-to-earth, the shoes are childlike and femine at the same time, they even have a male aspect to them, these are the shoes of a vain dressed-up princess as well as a girl in rags not being aware if her beauty. These shoes told hundred stories to me the minute I saw them, this is why I carried them home with me and tried to put some of their stories into pictures. Two little twin sisters out and about, looking for their place in life. When I saw your video on your webside and heard you talking about your philospophy much later, you basically summed up everthing I felt that second in front of the shopping window.



Your new projects?

I have a long-term project always running "in the background", my working title for it is "culture versus nature". These two are opposites by definition. Man is constantly trying to cultivate, but as soon as they let their efforts slide, nature finds its way back. Flowers start growing out of cracks in concrete, cars are covered with leaves, seeds and insects if you don´t move them for a while... you find examples for this anywhere. The strange of nature, its silent perseverence always amazes me.



Your favourite artists?

There are no favourite artists for me. There is hundreds of brilliant people around, through all centuries. Everytime I´m on the internet, I realize that there is so much creativity and potential everywhere in the world, it´s just amazing. Pity most of these things never make it into a broader public. We are swamped with mediocrity instead – but don´t let me start on that... Generally, I am not only interested in photography, also in painting, sculpture, mixed media, everything, especially street art and illustration. As in my own work, I prefer pieces with a certain sense of humour, an art that makes me smile and does not take itself too seriously.


Sent your comments to th.rueggeberg@web.de

I was in Toronto, NY and Dallas in a one week tour. Visiting my customers and talking about my product.

With a lovely staff at Holt Renfrew, we had a productive morning!

With these hundsome gentleman at Davis store!

A surprise stop at Browns! Very professional guys!

I love this city! There's so much energy and the mixture of culture you can't see anywhere else. I lived in NY for 5 years and still feel at home when i go back!

I always stop at Bergdorf Goodman when i am in NY!

My shoes are always nicely displayed!

The store was beautiful and the windows were all decorated on the "sex and the city 2" theme, of course...

and the best...

we made to the spanish secretary of culture a sandal, style Kerry and she sent us a very nice letter, congratulating for our work!

Miniature shoes by Manolo Bordera

Manolo is from Elda (actually he lives next door to our office) and he’s been working on shoes since he was a kid…as many of his generation. In 1988 he started to make these miniature shoes.

He doesn’t know how long it takes to make each of them, because he would do when finished his day in the factory, but definitely a lot of patience!

Each of the parts of the shoe is made by him…the lat, heel, sole, pattern, except for the sewing part, he asks his colleague in the factory.

None of these models are repeated and he has more than 200! It’s his hobby and you can see in his face how much he enjoys making them!

Now he is retired but continues with shoes, in a small scale!

showing the process of how to make a collection

i opened my stock of left over leathers and ornaments to the students and they fiercely grabbed their pieces for the final project!

Leticia, on my left, is a friend of mine. She organized the whole trip.

this book of Aki Choklat shows great designs from contemporary shoe designers.

i am so happy they invited me!!

emma suárez! i love this actress! her beauty really lies on her natural look! we made a few shoes for her in this drama from Agustí Vila "la mosquitera".

Was a great honor to be hosting at the Isetan shoe floor. Thanks for my japanese customers that came to see me and the new spring collection. It was a great to see who's buying my shoes and their way of dressing. When I design I don't have any woman in mind, so it's funny when i see them in reality!