SOTTILEVANZOOMEREN.COM
originated in 2005 from the collaboration between Daliah Giacoma Sottile and Wendy van Zoomeren
During a trip to Beijing, Daliah visited a post-communist market with clothes, uniforms and accessories of the Mao period. She came across a box full of shoes which were used for callisthenic gymnastics. She remembered when she had worn them herself as a child during P.E class at school. She bought 2 pairs and wore them during her return flight to Italy. They were so pretty and comfortable! She continued to wear them as slippers and for her daily exercises of 5 Tibetan Rites.
Daliah spoke to Wendy about the possibility of making similar shoes but using different materials, such as linen velvet, cotton velvet, linen, cotton, silk, pure virgin wool. So began Sottilevanzoomeren! Daliah works on the design (www.knechtsottile.com) and alternates the materials: velvet for winter, linen and cotton for summer; the soles are all in Alcantara® (no use of materials of animal origin) and this guarantees the non-slip structure. The materials used are all of the highest quality and produced exclusively in Italy.
Every pair is accurately hand-sewn and checked by Wendy who has studied the structure, the robustness and chosen the matching colours of elastic and laces.
