With exotic leathers and precious stones, the haute couture shoes of Patricia Rosales from Almeria are authentic jewels worn by celebrities such as Madonna or Naomi Campbell and wealthy women willing to pay up to 80,000 euros for a pair, adorned with superb diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires.
“I design for a woman who begins to dress from her feet,” says Patricia Rosales, who reveals that most of her exclusive clients, including celebrities, Arab princesses, European aristocrats, and the cream of Russian society “choose her style depending on the shoes”.
With her factory in the mecca of Spanish footwear, Elda, (Alicante), Rosales, 29, has just presented her first prêt-à-proter collection, ‘The treasures of Egypt’, in Paris, the city where the next year and shopping epicenter and operations center for its Arab clients.
Digitize the feet and build custom shoes
Through a prior appointment, Rosales meets her potential buyers, who present her with the design they want. Next, she digitizes her foot and studies her anatomy until she gets a last like a second skin. “Method that allows you to work without having to take planes,” she says.
Also desired by Paulina Rubio, Rosales’ designs are successful because she knows how to interpret the tastes of her clients and work the lasts as if they were “toiles” -testing- of haute couture. Handmade and unrepeatable designs, of great delicacy and sensitivity, made with luxurious materials such as emu feathers, eel, mink, or Napata crocodile skin.
The exclusivity that forces him to stop the production of his creations, which have a minimum cost of 1,500 euros, a price that increases depending on the materials chosen. “The most expensive ones I’ve made amounted to 80,000 euros, they wore a gold net with diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires,” he reveals.
Exquisite and whimsical, Rosales’s followers also request footwear made from family jewels, of great sentimental value. “In these cases, I usually work the precious stones as brooches so that they can be used on more occasions,” she says.
She remembers that a princess from Qatar asked her for shoes with “transparent methacrylate heels filled with Swarovski crystals like diamonds.”
For this young designer, heels denote personality and elegance. “They are a great differentiating element between people, as well as providing great security to women. I don’t hesitate to wear good heels when I have to make important decisions,” says the designer.
In Antiquity, the length of the heel marked the social rank
The footwear symbolizes “freedom”; it is enough to review history to discover that in Antiquity the size of the heel marked the social difference. In Rosales’ opinion, high-heeled shoes are “a wonderful way to express the beauty, sensitivity, and sovereignty of women”.
After graduating in Economics, Patricia Rosales decided to study fashion and design. As she was not convinced by the study method taught in Spain, she created her fashion school in Madrid, Semmes.
Once underway, her passion for her shoes led him to Elda. There, along with the most veteran artisans, she learned the shoemaker’s trade. “It is not easy to make a shoe that fits well, that is comfortable and that is well compensated,” explains Rosales,
Rosales, who is preparing a collection that recreates the opulence and luxury of the Russian tsars, likes to mix leather with noble and delicate fabrics such as brocades.
Her designs, known as “the patricians”, are adorned with an eight-millimeter pearl inside the heel, a personal seal that distinguishes them on red carpets around the world.