"My shoes are special shoes for discerning feet,"Manolo Blahnik.
Today I am very proud to be Irish. I am also very proud of the many Irish designers our fair isle has produced. I hope through my blog I can celebrate the talent and creativity of our home bred designers, both up and coming and established. I was delighted to see that at last night's premiere of The Lovely Bones movie at the Savoy, Irish actress Saoirse Ronan wore a stunning pair of Nina Divito Shoes. As Nina hails from my home town of Cabinteely, I feel extra proud that the artist turned shoe designer is now seeing her day on the red carpet and long may it last. Just two years ago I was interviewing Nina as she held an exhibition of her fabulous paintings at Kildare Village. As an artist Nina has stuck to what she does brilliantly, what she knows and that is shoes. Her paintings are exquisite and feature shoes we could only imagine owning that was until recently when just like magic the world of shoes became more exciting with Nina releasing her first line of stunning designs.
Nina always had an interest in the design of shoes and after completing a Degree in Fine Art at IADT Dun Laoghaire, she later went on to the prestigious shoe making course in Cordwainers at the London College of Fashion. Shoe design was always the goal and lucky for us the people at Brown Thomas and Kalu agree that Nina certainly has a flare for making our little pinkies as special as can be. My favourite out of the flamboyant 11 shoe styles are the Ruthie Shoe Boots…..maybe a Valentine gift………hint, hint! The glorious debut collection are available now.