If you want to know everything about footwear, you will end up coming over to Italy. Here you will fall in love with materials, bags and shoes. Moreover, if you are planning to launch a quality brand, you will never stop making use of leather made in Italy. Several young fashion designers, and their stories, evidence that. The last one is about Flor de Maria Rivera, a Peruvian designer who moved to the United States and is now leading a footwear brand. She handmakes shoes in the USA by using Italian materials.
Flor de Maria Rivera
The designer, born in Peru, moved to the United States of America at the age of 14. She used to work as a sport journalist with a close focus on fashion. In 2010, she created her own bilingual blog called Flor de Maria Fashion. She has always been passionate about shoes. She had nearly 500 pairs of them. Many were heeled shoes, “but still I could not find what I was looking for”, said Flor de Maria Rivera while talking to Footwear News. At this point, after spending a lot of money for shopping, she decided to create and launch her own footwear brand. She came over to Italy to attend a course at the Arsutoria School. Then she studied entrepreneurship at Stanford University. Her aim was to make comfortable and affordable shoes with high quality heels. In 2019 she launched her own brand.
The first collection
Her first collection takes inspiration from Peruvian culture, while her second collection draws inspiration from Italy. Shoes are hand made in the United States by making use of materials coming from Italy. They are sold to buyers directly: selling price ranges from 245 to 400 US dollars a pair. Each pair of shoes is provided with a set of interchangeable straps, variously long, and materials, such as leather, suede leather or PVC, to change look. Each single model has a woman name.
Outlook
March lockdown took place just four months after the launching of the brand: repercussions could not be prevented. Yet Flor told Footwear News that in the last five months demand was heavier than ever, as shoe models were sold out in 48 hours. She is now planning to open some pop-up stores in the States; she also hopes to offer some scholarships to other emerging fashion designers, especially to some women who belong to ethnic minorities.
Pictures taken from flordemariacollection.com
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