The
idea to make shoes came to me years ago as I was not able to find a
shoemaker in Buenos Aires who was really able to make comfortable
shoes. Having a background as a guitarmaker I figured out that making
myself a pair of shoes would be easier than making a guitar. At that
time there was no information at all available on internet on
shoemaking...in Italian there were no books to be found and so I ended
up finding 3 books in Germany in a technical university library...they
were dated 1901, 1918 and 1945!!!!
Even though they were written a long time ago they are extremely
detailed with a wealth of information which is absolutely unknown to
nearly all shoemakers nowadays. So I made my own lasts and my own shoes
and by the 3rd attempt I had my most comfortable tangoshoes in the
world ;-)
A few years later in Buenos Aires I was renting a flat and
across the street there was a small school for shoedesign...so together
with my girlfriend at the time we decided to take some classes on
women's shoe design with the idea that I would then make some shoes for
her...from there we started a very small production in Rome which we
slowly gave up because I had really no time to dedicate to it...but we
were very succsessful in making the most comfortable high heel shoes on
the market. As a tango teacher around the world for many years I heard
every day the complaints of all the girls about their hurting
feet...and looking closely at all of the women's dance shoes on the
market it was easy to understand that none were made to be comfortable.
They have big mistakes in geometry and in workmanship...the inside of
the shoes looks more like tools for torture than for pleasure. Of
course to make the shoes as comfortable as they have to be it takes a
little more time to make each pair of shoes...
Now together with Yana and Zhenia from La Tierra del Tango in
Moscow we decided to venture again into the shoe project. it took us a
long time to find the right shoemakers who were willing to work for us
to our standards. To make our shoes they had to change somewhat the way
they are used to make shoes. It took a lot of visits to their workshop
to explain to them what and how they have to do and to check that they
really understood and did what is important to us. And of course it
takes them a little longer than usual to make a pair of shoes...but the
end result is quality. Quality is what from the beginning we are not
willing to compromise and we decided to use top quality materials from
the start.
So now Filippo Avignonesi and La Tierra del Tango Moscow are glad to introduce you the rebirth of Coqueta tango shoes.
P.S.: Men's shoes are also coming soon in a few months!!!
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