Fashion: Beautiful quality never fades

Jef Overwater and Christina Overwater of Timeless Soles shoe store. Photo/George Novak

Ethical designer shoes are now here, says Annemarie Quill

What does a woman do when she can't find her favourite shoe designer in New Zealand? Start a company selling his brand.

That is exactly what Christina and Jef Overwater did after they returned to Mount Maunganui in 2014 and missed favourite shoe brand John Fluevog, no longer available in New Zealand.

Christina says she and Jef are both shoeaholics and own quite the shoe collection after having owned and managed several shoes stores in NZ and Australia. It was this love with shoes and all things John Fluevog that inspired them to start Timeless Soles, to be the sole distributor of the brand here.

John Fluevog is a Vancouver designer who designs and produces non-traditional shoes in traditional methods, using eco-friendly materials where possible. His shoes are worn by many famous faces and you can see why!

Not only are these shoes unique in design - some call them works of art - but very comfortable with a built in feel-good factor.

Christina says, "When I'm in a long meeting I look down at my Fluevogs and they bring a smile to my face, helping me get through the day! They make you feel special and just give you that something extra. We all need that sometimes."

Christina says the shoes are unique in that most styles will usually come in two or three colours and Fluevog will only produce between 120-300 pairs of each model.

"One of the things we love about the brand is that when you divide that between all of the stores, there aren't that many! Very, very few people in the world will have the same shoes as you. That's pretty unique, depending on whom you hang out with. Once a size or a model is sold out they can not be reordered".

Fluevog primarily uses cow leather, but they also use calf, sheep or pigskin lining for all of their footwear.

In the last few years, eco-friendly, vegetable-tanned leathers are used wherever possible. These are still leather but 100 per cent eco-friendly and biodegradable without any toxic waste.

Christina and Jef sell through their online store or view by appointment at their quirky little showroom in the Mount.