There is little doubt that 2013 will be a good year for Diego Vanassibara. After showing his footwear designs during the fashion showcase London Collections: Men (the British capital’s equivalent of a men’s fashion week) in January 2013, the young Brazilian designer has deservedly caught the attention of fashion buyers and journalists. A graduate of footwear design and product development from the Cordwainers programme in association with the London College of Fashion, Vanassibara has produced shoes and boots characterised by a hybrid approach to design and production that blends high-quality leather with mahogany and New Guinea rosewood through artisanal manufacturing methods.
The hides used in the Diego Vanassibara shoes and boots come from Italy, where production also takes place. In order to guarantee quality to his footwear line, the designer chose to trust the manufacture of his designs to a small family-run company that has been making shoes for three generations. Similarly, the wood pieces used in the collection come from a man-grown plantation of 100% legal and certified sustainable trees in the island of Java and are produced by the Rohim family, who have carved wood and been involved in carpentry for more than a century.
I had the opportunity to examine these shoes closely and speak to the designer in London and was very impressed with the attention to detail and high quality of his shoes. Diego Vanassibara footwear is most certainly a label that deserves swift expansion and further admiration by men.