The beginning. Who are the two pixies?

We are two friends who got tired of searching for the perfect pair of shoes in the colors and the dimensions we wanted and decided to make our own. And, after seeing that people liked the pairs we made for ourselves, we started making shoes for our friends and from that to creating Pixie Shoes was only a step.

Another reason for starting this business was the fact that we were beginning to go over our budget when it came to shoes and the obvious solution was to share our ideas with our customers and incorporate their wishes in our designs.

We both studied at the Academy of Economic Studies, Eva having a degree in Economic Studies in French and she is now studying for a master degree in Marketing, while I studied Statistics and have a Masters Degree in Communication and Public Relations (French).

I am currently working in Market Research for an automobile company while Eva is still studying and managing the administrative part of Pixie Shoes while I try to take care of promoting our story.

What does the creative process look like?

The models are usually a combination of our ideas, the international trends and improvements made after our friends or us test the “prototypes”.

We collaborate with a workhouse and the lovely people from there do their best to transform all our dreams and wishes into palpable reality, that is our design ideas into shoes.

When we want to create a new model the first question we ask ourselves is: “Would we wear this model?”, followed by: “How comfortable would it be?”

Our goals

Pixie Shoes tries to combine in the best possible way the trend, the comfort and to add some color to the grey city. Even though we try to promote high heels, our shoes are very comfortable and once you try them on you will never want to quit wearing them.

We can offer shoes with numbers from 35 to 40, having the possibility, for certain models, to offer also the numbers 34 and 41. For special orders, or more models for the same client we can make a special number.

Another important aspect, the prices are established keeping in mind the materials that are used and of course the manual labor.

Our muse

We are inspired by what would we wear, what we see on the streets, in magazines, in the shops, on fashion sites and blogs. The colors are carefully chosen to make the shoes stand out but not in an aggressive way. We try to make shoes for all women, shoes that can be worn in the office, on the streets and for special occasions. That is why our shoes are very comfortable.

What about selling shoes online?

We know, shoes and selling online may seem an odd association and probably many women don’t dare to order their shoes on the Internet because they are afraid they won’t match the number or their wishes. The big advantage of selling shoes online is the price which one may keep in reasonable ranges taking into account that they are handmade using the best materials. Also, the customers can send us all the details regarding sizes and a footprint so that we can be able to make the perfect shoes for them. If the pair doesn’t match it can be sent back and replaced with the right number.

Promotion

For promoting our shoes we use mainly the online environment, we try to get as many articles about us as possible in the online versions of magazines. We are active on Facebook and Twitter. We are members of the Romanian fashion bloggers community.

In addition, we participate at hand-made and vintage fairs and we have catalogs in a few selected locations.

Another important thing is word of mouth, our friends being our main spokespeople.

Some advices

Although we adore doing this, there are sometimes difficulties we need to surpass. And the fact that we are quite new to this domain and that we prepared for very different careers can sometimes be a minus. However, we learned from our mistakes. We try to prevent them and nothing can beat the feeling of seeing our ideas being appreciated by others. That is the only boost we need for continuing despite the hard parts of the process.

The problem in this business is the fact that there isn’t a textbook to read or a users’ guide to follow its instructions, you have to learn everything the hard way, if I may say so. That’s why I have a few advices for those who want to start designing shoes the way we did:

-      Establish connections with everybody involved and try to maintain them as close as possible.

-      Never assume that somebody thinks like you or can guess what you want: always specify clearly and very detailed your wishes.

-      Lose any trace of shyness you have left in you. You have to talk to everybody and “brag” about your work.

-      Leave your creativity take control and never create anything only if you think it will sell. Create with your soul, people can see beneath the surface of a product and you are trying to sell creativity and hand made goods.

Guest post by Sinziana Nastase, one of the founders of Pixie Shoes.