We took five minutes with Ancient Greek Sandals’s co-founder and designer Christina Martini to find out the story behind the label.
HOW DID YOU START DESIGNING SHOES?
I was born and raised in Athens, Greece, and spent all of my holidays on the Greek Islands.
When I was 18 I came to London to study fashion design at Camberwell College. While doing my Foundation course in Art and Design I discovered that I could take a specialised course in Footwear Design. I went on to study Footwear Design and Product Development at Cordwainers College.
My first job after graduating was at the IRIS factory in Italy – my role as product manager for Chloe, Sonia Rykiel and Veronique Branquinho taught me everything about the making of luxury shoes. My first design job was as women’s shoe designer at Louis Vuitton where I stayed for six wonderful years before moving to Balenciaga for another two. I decided to move back to Greece to start a family and try to follow my dream of launching my own label. I met Nikolas Minoglou, the co-founder of Ancient Greek Sandals and my business partner, through a very good friend – we both had the same idea about creating a brand of high quality Greek sandals inspired by Ancient Greek mythology and art. We joined our creative and business forces and Ancient Greek Sandals was born!
WHICH IS YOUR FAVOURITE PAIR FROM THE SS14 COLLECTION AND WHY?
I love all the sandals in the collection and my favourites change quite often.
My current favourite pair is the ‘Thais’ (the slide) which has proved to be the style of the season.
I have them in bright blue which I had monogrammed at the MATCHESFASHION.COM monograming service event last week. I love them because they are so comfortable and I can wear them everyday with shirt dresses or jeans. I also have the same style in black pony – perfect for summer nights.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR ANCIENT GREEK SANDALS?
We will continue to add new designs, colours and materials to the womens collection as well as keeping our classic styles. We would also like to further develop our men’s collection and we are thinking of introducing a small line of leather bags. Finally, it is always interesting and exciting to team up with fashion houses or designers like this season’s collaboration with Carven.
DEFINE THE WORD STYLE…
Style is not forced, it is something that comes naturally.
SHOP ANCIENT GREEK SANDALS: http://www.matchesfashion.com/womens/ancient-greek-sandals