Today we’d like to introduce you to Beatriz de los Mozos.
Hi Beatriz, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My background is law and I worked first as a lawyer in Madrid and London and then as a sales rep at an Artificial Intelligence company based in London. However, I love fashion and I have been very inspired by fashion since very little.
When traveling, I used to select the finest hand-crafted local garments that I really put an effort to find.
My passion for local handcraft ship inspired me to begin a business that involves working with Spanish artisan women that sew shoes as in the old days, using the espadrilles technique.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I guess building a business is never a smooth road. The struggles are crazy! How to fund since the beginning all the activities of the company, how to put together the team, how to lead the team, how to keep the team motivated, how to make the company profitable, how to develop the right estructure to make everything more efficient, how to monitor and control the stock, how to lead amongst competitors, how to communicate the right message, how to connect with clients, how to sell, how to keep selling over time (years), how to innovate with every collection every year, how to keep up with the rest of the competitors, etc. Every stage has its own challenges and as far as you reach, the challenges only grow…
As you know, we’re big fans of Flabelus. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Flabelus is a magic world full of literary characters in the form of garments. We hold strong values on sustainability, women empowerment and culture (link to literature, all the shoes are named upon literary women that inspired us).
WHAT WE DO
I love venetian slippers (furlane) and at the beginning, I wanted to rethink their design. As I did not find any Italian factory that wanted to work towards my vision, I contacted the espadrille makers in Alicante and from my insight and theirs, Flabelus, the espadrille-furlane, was born. This was the beginning.
NAME
With regard to the name, I have to give all the credit to my best friend Flami. At the beginning, I started dreaming about Flabelus with my two best friends, Flaminia and Lucrecia. Flami one day came to our reunion with the idea: why not mix our three names and make the name for the brand Fla (Flaminia) Be (Beatriz) Lu (Lucrecia) s? And here it is. It reminds me of them and of friendship.
VALUES: women empowerment and sustainability at core.
For me, women empowerment is at the core of our business. I knew since the beginning of the project I really wanted to do something relating to this topic and that women should be prioritized and positioned as the center of everything we did. Therefore, our shoes are made by Spanish artisan women that have known and practiced how to sew shoes all their lives. They work using the technique of the espadrille therefore all our shoes are sewed and constructed by them as in the old days. We give them a new means of living and also a new meaning to their work. It is very beautiful to see how we grow together and how we enhance one another’s activities. We would not be in the magic world of Flabelus without them.
Sustainability is not only important but crucial for us. Everything we do has a purpose behind it related to sustainability and overall, responsibility with the world we live in. I believe being sustainable is being responsible. I could speak about sustainability for ages, but our most important milestones are the link with the Spanish women artisans, who do all our shoes, the very controlled chain of production (we have direct contact with all our providers who are Spanish or Italian), the fair prices rule, the selection of recycled or sustainable materials for all our garments and shoes, the women empowerment rule (we work with many women on the chain), etc.
A STEP FURTHER
Flabelus is a new proposal and a step further in the category “Venetian slippers”. It is the only proposition that has created a hybrid between espadrille and furlane, which takes the best of both worlds: the durability, comfort and endurance of the Spanish espadrille and the elegance of the Venetian slipper. Therefore, it is a very comfortable yet chic shoe for all year long. We take design to the utmost, creating new shapes unique to Flabelus that elevate the espadrilles design towards city wear, keeping its comfort and versatility. The combination of colors at Flabelus are also another strength, it is difficult not to find your perfect shoes when we hold more than 300 different color combinations, from very classic to the craziest set.
I can affirm that creativity never stops at Flabelus and we are always developing new capsule collections and testing new types of shoes. Each garment-new design takes us quite a while. This is because we experience materials, shapes and colors that also have to fit with our values of versatility and comfort, we try everything several times before we consider each garment perfect. This is what we are doing with both jewelry and clothes. Also, we are working on further accessories. Surprise!
ACHIEVEMENTS
In less than three years of history, we are a profitable company with 20 employees. We hold two stores in Madrid and we are about to open other two, internationally. We are present in more than 30 countries, and we work with more than 250 retailers, amongst others, Galeries Lafayette, Le Bon Marché, El Corte Inglés, La Rinascente, Coin Excelsior, Illum, Tessabit and others.
Any big plans?
We are working very hard on the international expansion in more than 30 countries. We are also looking at opening new stores in important countries.
The sky’s the limit.
I would love to have at least ten boutiques opened in five years time and to organize a huge event in Paris Fashion week. That would be the dream.
Pricing:
- We are not a expensive product, yet the quality is really high. Pricing goes from 125 dollars to 320 dollars
Contact Info:
- Website: www.flabelus.com
- Instagram: flabelus
- Facebook: flabelus
- Linkedin: flabelus
Image Credits
Leticia Rovira (@letirovira)
