It’s one thing to have a beautiful pair of flats from Italy. But you’ll make your style skyrocket when you get them monogrammed by Del Toro.
Andrew Roberts, Del Toro’s CEO, granted me an exclusive interview for WAG, all about the beautiful shoes that the company handmakes in Naples and Milan, via old world craftsmen whose workshops have been around for generations. This luxury shoe brand is one of the world’s best-kept secrets, and I’m delighted to have discovered them.
Del Toro is famous for its best-selling house slippers — $225 leather and velvet mules that are selling out right now, with everyone staying at home and working from home. What could be more comfortable during a Zoom call? The house slipper just launched this past January, and it’s wildly popular. “It feels good to dress up during quarantine,” Roberts told me. “We’re seeing a trend of people wanting to look good at home.”
Then there’s the “hero” product – the $365 velvet tuxedo slippers/flats – which are also very popular. Roberts told me with a laugh, though, “This is the worst time in history to sell a tuxedo slipper.” In a word, they are gorgeous and will easily take you from blue jeans to ball gowns.
The “special sauce” that all of these shoes offer is a $40 customization that is the status symbol to end all status symbols and can be etched onto the heels or the bottom sole. For weddings, almost everyone – including the groom and the groomsmen — will engrave the bottom sole with the date. You can add a three-letter monogram, your name, images, wedding and anniversary dates, nicknames, mantras, “and you can get really creative with emojis,” Roberts told me. Who doesn’t love shoes embroidered with your favorite symbol? He added that one proud father of the bride was so thrilled with his heel customization, that he proudly took off his shoes during the wedding and showed the customization to all of the wedding guests.
“Foot”note: You can also have anything you want custom-engraved on the toes – the front vamp! This customization embroidery costs $150. It’s almost always people’s monogram. It can be in the form of three initials in a diamond pattern, or you can have one initial on the right shoe and the other initial on the left.
“Del Toro always wants to be at the forefront of what can be customized, and we made a huge investment in our customization capabilities so you can make the shoe one-of-a-kind that you can’t find anywhere else.”
Bespoke shoes – who doesn’t love that?
For more, visit deltoroshoes.com and follow me on Instagram @Debbikickham.
– Debbi K. Kickham.
