Label to Watch: Freda Salvador

{"We chose to remain very focused for our debut collection. Our assortment includes flat loafers and moccasins as well as ankle and tall-shaft boots. They are 'tailored,' but really feminine at the same time." - Cristina}

{Speaking of the Freda Salvador "girl": "She is bold, even if she achieves it quietly. She is creative, stylish, and artsy. She knows beauty and sex appeal is purely the confidence she has in herself. Clothes matter, shoes matter, because they are her way of saying, 'This is who I am today.'" - Megan}

{"I come from a shoe-making family, so I always knew I wanted to launch my own line. I studied at Ars Sutoria in Milan to learn technical design and then I studied Fashion Merchandising at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. My first design job was with Anyi Lu [where she met Megan] and now I'm with Freda." - Cristina}

When I spotted the Refinery29 piece on Freda Salvador, I let out a little gasp of delight. Cristina Paloma, a friend from college, paired with Megan Papay to start footwear label Freda Salvador, which hits stores this fall and is getting a lot of well-deserved buzz.
I always admired Cristina's effortless style, and it carries into the duo's design aesthetic. Freda Salvador features flat booties and oxford-meets-loafer styles crafted in Cristina's native El Salvador (the first part of the line's name pays homage to Mexican painter Frida Kahlo) out of luxe Brazilian leather and pony-hair prints.
Read the rest of the Refinery29 story here and check out the Freda Salvador website to find out where you can pick up their shoes this fall (I have my eye on the leopard-print oxford-loafer hybrids Cristina's wearing above).

P.S. The winner of our giveaway from Sassyrae is, drumroll please, Ashlyn, from my unrehearsed life.