TGN x Sapato

April 28, 2015 posted by Vicki in Style

If we were meant to stay in the same place, we would have roots instead of feet. The Gypsetters are proud and excited to announce our shoe collaboration with local shoe retailer Sapato Manila, entitled The Traveling Sole, which grew from Stephanie’s love of her stylish and ultra comfortable Sapato shoes, especially while on honeymoon (read that post here). Sapato Manila is known for quality craftsmanship and quality leather shoes and bags and we are humbled that they have asked us to design a capsule collection with them.

Women know there is limited suitcase space when it comes to packing, especially for shoes for different occasions. Many times we Gypsetters have kept several pairs of shoes on the floor, lined up like soldiers along the case, still undecided on which pair was going to make the cut in precious cargo space depending on how many times it would be useful with several outfits.  Unlike men who have casual shoes, work out shoes and more formal shoes (nowadays the chic casual can used for both casual and more dressy events or vice versa), women have to bring different colors of comfortable flats, dressy heels for nights out, work out shoes and wedges for the in-between.

When it came to deciding what kind of shoe to design for this collection, Stephanie and I knew three things: “They have to be functional, versatile and stylish,” she said. “We believe in practicality but not in ugly rubber shoes!” We wanted to design shoes that would look different even if they were the same pair. We came up with three types of shoes: the first of which are the flats like the original inabel ones Stephanie wore to Sri Lanka. Inabel is handwoven fabric made by Ilocano artisans by the weaving process abel. The Colombo flat comes with tan leather tassels but you can change this up with the assortment of colored suede tassels such as sea green, orange, magenta or forest green or mismatch them according to your whim or outfit. This shoe is perfect for walking around and also for visiting temples and certain churches as one cannot wear open toe shoes as a sign of respect.

The Colombo flats in natural snakeskin and also Ilocos inabel fabric

The next shoe we designed is the Tulum sandal: metallic gold or silver strappy flat sandals that not only come with the assortment of colored tassels but also an extra strap that you can add to your sandal to turn it into a gladiator-style shoe, perfect for dresses or shorts when going out to dinner or clubs while at a beach resort locale such as Boracay, Phuket, Bali, Tulum, Cancun or Ibiza. The colors for the suede tassels available for Tulum are royal blue, mustard, fuchsia and orange.

The Tulum metallic sandals have an extra strap to turn it into gladiator sexy glam

Finally, last but not the least we wanted to design a shoe that gave us height and comfortability yet still felt sexy. Thus, the Riviera wedge was born. Made in nude leather with nude snakeskin or black leather with black snakeskin, these wedges also have their own assortment of colored tassels and the extra strap to turn it into a gladiator wedge. I personally love any shoe that has a strap like this – more than just gladiators they remind me of graceful and svelte ballet shoes whose ribbon wraps up your leg like a lovely gift.

The Riviera, sleek and comfy wedges with a removable gladiator strap

Each of these shoes have been personally tried and tested and I wore my Rivieras to my Vicki Tiki birthday party on Friday last week, while standing all night long, and I must admit they were so soft and comfy my feet didn’t ache like with some of my other wedges.

And those tassels! Stephanie and I are absolutely in love with our tassels. Steph and I were thinking of a tagline for them and we came up with, “Pack without hassle! Have a tassel!” which cracks us up every single time. We plan to rule the rule the world by tasselizing everything! The Sapato Manila team seamlessly interpreted our design ideas and we are amazed at how efficient everyone was in producing these shoes to come out with this collection. This is a first for the both of us to design shoes and Sapato Manila made the whole process feel like a breeze. We hope you will love the entire collection as much as we do!

On that note, we would like to invite all of you, our dear fellow gypsetters, to come to Sapato Manila, 2nd Level Archaeology, Power Plant Mall in Rockwell starting from 4PM onwards for the launch of The Traveling Sole. The shoes will be available there until sizes run out, so come and try a pair on for yourself and find that good shoes truly will take you good places.

May all your gypsetting dreams come true,

Vicki