Francesca Lombardo, in the U.S. from Sicily, set up shop, last summer, literally, direct from Italy and still in the shipping boxes as we had a great time on my office floor. We were looking at all of the styles she has ordered in Milan to make their entree into Houston fashion! That was a few months ago and she has continued to follow her dream and has brought in many more shoes and more on the way…..which we will feature when they arrive shortly!
About Brio & Co.: In case you may recall and hopefully not forgotten, I want to take this opportunity to introduce the MyRedGlass readers to our newest full-time advertiser, Francesca Lombardo owner of direct Italian Shoe Manufacturer, Brio and Co.
Francesca Lombardo, made her way from her native Messina, Sicily to Houston six years ago to be in the Oil & Gas business. However, she quietly had a burning desire to always be in fashion and I might add, has a good eye for it as well. So about a year ago as Oil & Gas softened in our town, she decided that was the time to make the break and go full force into bringing authentic, Made in Italy Fashion to Houston and the commodity that she chose was shoes first and handbags secondary.
She has brought a broad cross-section of many different styles, colors, shapes and heel heights to get a feeling on this first venture, just what the Texas woman was going to take to. The quality is suburb and the styles are from what I would consider basics-with-a-twist to some edge ’70’s influenced platform wedges! Pricing is commensurate with the quality but reasonably less that many of the well-known Italian brands. She purchased all of the shoes from MICAM, the International Shoe Show in Milan where ALL brands, that you know and don’t know are represented and is one of the highest attended events in the world.
Italy known for it’s quality shoe production by region, was the topic of her presentation last week at the Italian Cultural Center (ICC) where she spoke to each of the regions and it’s specialties. It was very interesting and taught us all things we did not know about that artisan culture. The following is a peak at the presentation that Francesca presented to all of that attended.
To visit her shoe collection, you should visit her newly renovated and beautiful website and see for yourself. She will be selling initially through her site, is looking to some retail brick and mortar stores to partner with and any special home shows, markets, things of that nature where people can see the shoes, appreciate the quality and enjoy the design aspects! Click on www.brioandco.com to see all of her style offerings and learn the stories of the regions and the artisans that make this quality Italian footwear!
Handbags
