Even if you don’t know the name Mari Giudicelli, you know her face. In her five years in New York City, the Brazilian-born beauty has modeled for the likes of Mansur Gavriel and Eckhaus Latta, played muse to Simon Porte Jacquemus, and—perhaps most recognizably—become a face of bastion of downtown cool Maryam Nassir Zadeh (Giudicelli poses for e-commerce shots for the boutique, styling many of them herself). In addition to being a photographer, this past May she graduated from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, and is now poised to make public the fruits of her labors with the debut of an eponymous luxury shoe line.
Giudicelli started out studying garment design, but soon began specializing in footwear, whiling away hours in the school’s shoe lab. “That’s pretty much where I lived,” she tells Vogue.com. “I was making everything by hand. I just loved manipulating leather, even the smell of it was exciting to me.” Since graduating, Giudicelli has continued working away on prototypes in her Brooklyn apartment, and for Spring will launch with four shapes, among them an ankle boot, a loafer, and—particularly gorgeous—a mule with a high vamp and a low, block heel. All will be available in glossy lizard or suede, and lined with rabbit or calf. They’re informed by the ineffable cool that characterizes Giudicelli’s own wardrobe, an enviable mishmash of vintage scores, and pared-back labels like MNZ and Lemaire. Indeed, she commands a certain amount of I-want-to-be-her cache; murmurings that her shoemaking endeavors would eventually be made shoppable for the public generated plenty of interest—well evidenced by the kind of reactions to her Instagram announcement a week ago.
Trust the busy multi-hyphenate to create eminently wearable, versatile pairs. As she told us: “I wanted to create styles that could carry you through the day, that would be elegant, but also comfortable, and also something that’s not extremely trendy. You can wear it with a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, or you can wear it with a pretty dress.” Beyond creating easily worn kicks, Giudicelli’s emphasis is on craftsmanship and fine finishing. The line, from patterns to carved wooden heels, will be produced in her native Brazil at a family-run factory. “The fact that I’m Brazilian, that I speak the language, and I want to support [the artisans], it just made sense for me to produce there,” she says.
So how to get your hands on a pair? After she’s firmed up wholesale orders in late January, Giudicelli will open preorders to the public—but we’d wager these pairs will sell out fast; sign up over at her site to stay in the loop.
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