Shopping in Madrid...espadrilles....

Espadrilles

It is the Semana Santa in Spain and most people have gone on holiday except for about 7 of us at the office.  I have been referring to the Holy Week as Días Santos as I only have holiday on the national ones, Thursday and Friday.  A couple of weeks ago a personal shopper had contacted our office to have a meeting.  I found the request a bit strange being that I work at a small Private Equity firm whose investments are in Iberian Mid-Market companies and most of the people that request meetings with me are for hotels, telephones, printers, event planning, catering, etc but her studio is located right near our office and I have always wanted to be a personal shopper, so I decided to take advantage of the fact that my bosses were away and made an appointment.

So off I went to meet with Be Chic Personal Shopper.  I entered the beautiful building on Calle Monte Esquinza and her studio was just as lovely but I was a bit surprised.  I expected racks of clothing and tons of shoes more like how I have seen Rachel Zoe’s studio on TV.  This personal shopper has just recently opened the studio and it is not yet finished.  She offers a myriad of services and lucky for her the personal shopping business is still a relatively new concept in Madrid.  I thought that she lacked a bit of pizzazz but perhaps that is my North American nature popping through.  I wish her the best.  I, personally, am a great shopper and love shopping for other people.  I usually give my bosses great ideas for their wives so I don’t think my office will need her services.  

My favorite type of shopping is for birthday presents and SHOES!  Every year I ask my mom what she wants for her birthday about a month beforehand so the package will arrive on time for her special day.  This year I decided to go off the beaten path and I gave her a Pandora charm in the shape of a fish because up until about a month ago, I was convinced my mom was a Pisces!  It turns out she is a Aries, the ram – thankfully, my mom loves the sea so she interpreted the gift as such rather than my minor blunder of the Zodiac. 

Usually, my mom requests a couple of pairs of alpargatas, espadrilles in English.  She LOVES them!  Here is an email from 2006:

“hope all is well. wore my pink espadrilles last night. greatly admired by all. love you”

My adorable mom in her espadrilles

In Spain, the alpargatas can be found everywhere and lately, I see them in all of my fashion magazines.  Doña Leticia, the future king of Spain’s wife even wears them.  Who knew that ropey shoes could become so popular centuries later?  They are relatively inexpensive as well, even cheaper if you don’t have to ship them to the States.

I am not the biggest fan of the ropey Jesús shoes.  I owned my first pair of flat alpargatas a little over a decade ago, bought them in Málaga during my junior year abroad and more recently, I had a pair that weren’t the typical flat ones.  Due to my height and love of high heals, I can no longer were flat shoes.  I find that the flat alpargatas are deathly uncomfortable because they are just so flat and have no lining so it feels like you are walking on rough pavement.  My first pair was black (surprise, surprise) and my second pair had a nice wedge in a celestial blue with a strap around the ankle and the lining had hot pink and orange polka dots.  They were very cute but they got VERY dirty.

After a bit of research, apparently that ropey sole is made of jute and the unisex shoes, originally for peasants, date back to the 13^th Century and the King of Aragón.  The shoes were and still are hand made in near the Pyrenees; Cataluña and the Basque Country (northern Spain) as well as Bangladesh and France. 

Here is a lovely article that was published in the New York Times in 2005.

 If you are in Madrid and would like to buy some espadrilles, here are some stores that carry the classics:

La Alpargateria

Calle García de Paredes, 74

Casa Hernanz

Calle Toledo, 18 (right outside the Plaza Mayor)

The Princess Leticia buys hers here (very expensive for ropey shoes but they are a bit more fun):

Castañer

Calle Almirante, 24 or Calle Claudio Coello, 51

http://www.castaner.com/

On a side note, when I told Izzy that I was writing about alpargatas/espadrilles he really couldn't understand why.  I wasn't sure why either being that I am not a number one fan of the shoe.  I explained to him that it was because they were everywhere, almost like they are taunting me into buying a pair.  He told me they could only be found at a particular place near Calle Princesa.  When I said I wasn't familiar with that one he explained that it was a big, round type of bread filled with ham and cheese.  I started started laughing and explained that I was writing about shoes.  He is apparently more into the food department!!

Happy Shoe Shopping!!