It’s beginning to look a lot like the holidays around here! Our elves in Italy are hard at work on our NEW shoes- flats and lower heels just like you requested. Available on our website in early December!

Go ahead- we dare you not to feel festive just looking at these shoes. And imagining the holiday outfits you’ll be wearing with them.

If you’ve visited our website before, and if you visit it again now, you’ll probably notice one big, very big, change. Our prices have dropped. Big time. And we felt the need to write a little note and tell you why.

It’s not a sale (quite the opposite actually), and the prices aren’t going to go back up.  Here’s the deal:

We created samples for our Spring/Summer 2014 shoes- all kinds of wedges, pumps, sandals, flats- and we loved them.  So did the stores that we visited. They wanted to carry our line and sell our shoes, but once the retail markups, shipping, commissions, etc. etc. etc. were factored in, the prices were going to be through the roof. And something about that just didn’t sit right with us.

So we did some serious “sole” searching (pun intended). This company, as so many of you know, came from something so simple. My mom, Julie Lopez, wanted a pair of beautiful heels to wear to my sister’s wedding that wouldn’t hurt her troubled, bunion-ed (pretty sure that’s not a word) feet.  She never found those heels, and shortly after the wedding, started her own line. We went to Italy to have our heels made, because when you’re trying to make a shoe that doesn’t hurt women’s feet, every stitch matters, and we knew we could count on our Italian artisans, who had been in the shoe industry for hundreds of years, to deliver the product we wanted.

The goal, from day one and still to this day, was to give women, especially those with troubled feet, a shoe that wasn’t previously available- fashionable without the pain.

The response to our first batch of heels has been tremendous, and to all the women who have already purchased a pair (or several), we can’t tell you enough how much we appreciate your support, and how much we love hearing you tell us that you love our heels.

So with all of this buzzing around in our heads, discussions began as to what was going to be our next move.

Do we need to stay in Italy? Yes, we decided, and for those of you who have held a pair of our shoes in your hands and felt the quality, you know why Made in Italy makes all the difference.

Do we need to be sold in stores?

. . .

We all paused.  What would the new prices be if we didn’t have any retail markups? We ran some numbers, and the new prices started appearing, all under $300 and many less than $250.

The idea had been planted. What would happen if we took this brand online only? Same Italian quality, same FŸIŸT (Flex Innovation Technology), no retail markup.

Over the next few weeks we discussed every possible angle again and again and again, and talked with anyone who would listen to try and get their opinion. We ran market research surveys, ran numbers, spoke with industry experts, weighing every detail trying to decide if this big move was right.

When all was said and done, we made the decision to say thanks but no thanks to the stores. Deep down, we believe in these shoes, and we want to make them as affordable as possible to give as many women as possible the opportunity to own a pair.

So that’s why the prices are now significantly lower. And that’s why they’ll stay lower, because the only place you’ll find them is on our website.

And for those of you wondering about all those Spring/Summer 2014 styles, there’s more good news- they’re still coming next year. Even better, we have a few new styles, including a flat (!) that’s going to be available before the end of this year.

Reading back over it, this little note got a little longer than I had originally anticipated, but I am so excited about this new direction, and truly feel in my soul and soles that we’re on the right path.

As always, I love hearing from you, so please feel free to leave me any comments or questions.

Still beautiful heels. Still no pain. Still made in Italy. Now for a whole lot less.

All Our Best,

Erin (and the entire Julie Lopez team)

Head over to our Facebook page for a chance to win a free pair of our heels!

So seeing as we’re about halfway through the year, I thought it was time I put together some outfits featuring Pantone’s 2013 Color of the Year- Emerald. Not quite sure why it’s taken me so long considering I completely LOVE this color and it goes with just about every heel in our current collection, but nevertheless, here are some of my favorite pairings for this on-trend hue.

First up is the one-piece wonder known as the dress. I live in dresses. And this one is so classic it’s a no brainer. I paired it with our nude Layla python heels, because I was feeling a little sassy, but match this with our Camel Charlotte heels and it’s like taking a page straight from Duchess Catherine’s playbook.

Ok I couldn’t help myself- our camel Charlotte heels are begging to be paired with great emerald outfits. And who am I to deny them of that request? By the way, if you’ll notice, the pants below are not skinny leg pants. They aren’t even straight leg- these are full out wide leg, big, summery, flowy pants, just the way I like them. I know I post a lot of great outfits with skinny little jeans, but for readers who have been keeping up with us for the past few months, you know skinny jeans and I are not always BFFs. So I put an outfit together that’s totally up my alley- wide leg pants, great fitting top, and a killer pair of heels.

Last up is an outfit that just screams “Hello Summer!” How can you wear a bright yellow top and fun blue Charlotte heels and not feel great? I have been having a ton of fun lately mixing patterns and colors in slightly unexpected ways, and I find that the more I mix, the better the combinations get. And yes, I am reusing the emerald belt in both this outfit and the wide leg pant outfit. Because let’s be honest, no one needs more than one emerald belt in their closet.  Black heels, on the other hand, are a totally different story.