1000 Ideas by 100 Fashion Designers

Virginia Spagnuolo/Divia Shoes 305

096

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One day, lawyer

Virginia Spagnuolo

decided to study drama

and her life changed

forever. It made her

see that her true

vocation was in a more

creative  eld: shoe

design. She handcrafts

them in Argentinean

leather and in limited

editions. Intricate

as a honeycomb and

with cutaways and

heart-shaped stones or

diamanté buckles, they

are sold in the Palermo

district of Buenos Aires

and Asia. Virginia says

of herself, “Shoes are

everything to me; I’ve

always been fanatical

about them. Once I

asked Santa Claus for

bubblegum pink shoes

instead of a Barbie

doll. Every style has its

story, like my souvenir

peacock from a trip

to India, or the fans I

played with as a little

girl. My work is playful.

My designs come from

my fantasies.” This is

why when she makes

black shoes, they don’t

work.

Virginia Spagnuolo/Divia Shoes

www.diviashoes.com

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951 REFERENCES. Everything I design

carries a little part of my life. My shoes

are inspired by childhood memories. They

are the moments from it. That’s why I

say they have a soul. My main reference

is my grandmother, Victoria, a  ghter

and an independent woman for her time. I

still have her Singer sewing machine and

treasure it as if it were a sculpture of her.

952 I

NSPIRATION. I  nd great

inspiration in travel. For me, design is

directly linked to my feelings. Everything

I design has something to do with my

fantasies and my need for expression.

953 C

OLORS. I like to play with the

combination of color and texture. It’s a

distinctive feature of my shoes. I love to

create  gures, like butter ies and hearts.

Each style has many details; I’m no

minimalist and I never will be.

954 B

RAND VA L U E S . Divia promises

passion and love for a lifetime.

955

W

ORKPLACE. My work space is both

chaos and organization. Chaos,

because I believe the best ideas come

from it; and organization, so as to

be able to materialize my ideas and

make them real.

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956 IS FASHION ART? What I do is

directly related to my expressiveness.

I communicate my feelings, my joys,

through my designs. I feel this to be my

art.

957 A

DVICE. You should always do what

you’re passionate about; believe in your

projects; use perseverance and intuition;

and do it with love, because that’s the most

important source of inspiration.

958 S

ALES. Sooner or later, everything

you do with passion, love, and dedication

is re ected in your sales and in the growth

of your label. I feel I can prosper with

authenticity and intuition.

959 I

NDIVIDUALITY VS. GROUP BELONGING.

The women who choose my designs have

a strong personality and are extremely

sensitive. They love to be different.

960 A

CKNOWLEDGEMENT. The greatest

acknowledgement is when my clients feel

the same happiness when they wear their

Divia shoes as I do when I design them.

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© David Houncheringer/www.dada.fm

961 ADVICE. Take care about  rst

opportunities. Try to work in person on

that kind of business.

962 D

EVELOPING A COLLECTION. It

follows each product. We try to put a touch

of it on all of the designs, but the most

important part is placing the theme on our

T-shirts.

963 C

OLORS. We choose four to  ve

colors for each gender, so we try to  nd two

original tendency colors from the fashion

industries and two classic colors, such as

black and white.

© David Houncheringer/www.dada.fm

© David Houncheringer/www.dada.fm© David Houncheringer/www.dada.fm

© David Houncheringer/www.dada.fm

964

M

ATERIALS. The fabrics depend on the

products, so we do not choose a product for a

fabric but rather a fabric for a product.

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