Aemilia Sandals ...

Just as a forewarning - this is going to be a long blog post, but I think its worth the read ;)

Ever since I was a little kid I had a thing for shoes - I'm not sure where I got it from, but I have just always loved shoes. My mother even told me a story about when I was very little, that I had the most shoes in the house. Funny story (or maybe not so funny depending on who is reading this) whenever I move, I was always go through my closet and get rid of the stuff I don't wear anymore. So of course I was packing up my closet and going through everything and noticed that I had way too many shoes - I did a quick count and well, umm, as it turned out, I had 50 pairs of shoes in my closet haha.... So yes, I have some sort of addiction.

Last year while we were away in New York, I came across this pop up sandal shop in a department store and bought a custom pair of sandals. I thought it was pretty amazing to buy a pair of sandals that were custom made for my foot and that I got to pick what style and color I wanted. After looking into a bit more and doing a bit of research, I became even more interested in it and it was something that I wanted to get involved in. Never did I ever expect it to work out and/or that it would actually happen, but I kept thinking about it none the less.

When we started planning our trip, one of the places that I wanted to go to was Capri - the city where the custom made sandals originated from. It was always in the back of my mind, but the plan had always been to live in Paris for 2-3 months and then continue on with our journey. Never did I think that I would actually live in Capri and/or have the opportunity that I did. By a fluke chance, we stumbled upon a shoe making shop on one of the side streets in Capri - after working up a bit of courage, I asked the man if he would teach me how to make sandals. Without even hesitating, he agreed to teach me - ummm, what? Did I hear that right - he said yes. After months of dreaming of this opportunity it was actually going to happen. We returned to Capri the following week, found a flat to rent and I started my cobbling training.

For 5 weeks I learnt how to make sandals from (in my opinion) one of the best sandal makers in the Amalfi Region. My mentor has been making sandals for the past 40 years and is the third generation of shoe makers. His family has been in the sandal making business for the past 95 years - first starting with his grandfather and continuing generation after generation. His grandfather made sandals for Royalty from all over Europe, his dad made sandals for Jackie Kennedy and Enzo has made sandals for a countless number of celebrities - one of his regular customers is Fiona Swarovski. I spent all of my time in his little shoe shop learning everything I possible could and just soaking in the Italian lifestyle. I first learnt how all of the styles were made and took all the notes that I could. Then I was allowed to start practicing what I had learnt and try my hand at sandal making. Much to our surprise, I was a very fast learner and picked up the skill pretty fast (he even asked if I had worked with my hands before doing stuff like this) - I think my mentor was both excited and proud of my sandal making. Every day I would head to "work" and learn all about leather, soles and shoe making (okay and a lot about Italian food haha). I would sit behind his desk and make shoes while he watched and told me stories about his life.

I will always cherish those moments and feel pretty lucky to have been given such an amazing opportunity. People around town started asking me if I was the one "making sandals". (It's a pretty small town and word gets around fast). Enzo can make a pair of sandals in about 7 minutes, I on the other hand take about 50 minutes haha... It is amazing watching him work. By the time Arnold got back to Capri, I had already been cobbling for a month and he was pretty surprised by my progress. I even made him a pair of shoes :)

So I am now a full fledge shoe cobbler and I think that it only adds fuel to my shoe addiction (Yes, I got to make myself sandals as well). Now I look at all the ladies wearing sandals and think about how they are made and the fit of the shoe haha. Enzo also put me in touch with a supplier, so I spent a morning in Napoli meeting with them to talk about different types of straps I need and to make sure they could make the correct type of soles for me. My first order of supplies will arrive in Canada shortly after we are back from our trip. The logo is currently in the works and after it has been finalized we are going to start working on a website. I am very, very excited about my new project and even more excited about the chance to do something that I am really passionate about it. 

So yes, that is what I was doing in Capri for so long and that is why Arnold went back home for as long as he did. He would have been bored to tears had he stayed there for the whole time, while I was busy learning how to make sandals. I was more then happy to give up my dream to live in Paris if it meant that I was going to spend 5 weeks in Capri doing what I did.

And that is the story and the start of Aemilia Sandals

Hope you guys liked the story and it was worth the read (I'm trying to post pics of the sandals so you get a bit of an idea of what they look like) :)

Love Melissa