When you walk down the street in New York and see Rihanna, Anna Hathaway and Michelle Obama wearing the sandals you've designed, you have every right to feel like you've made it. This is what happened to Ancient Greek Sandals (AGS).
It all started at the time when Christina Martini was collaborating as a designer with Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga in Paris and Nikolas Minoglu was returning to Athens from America, carrying in his luggage the belief that traditional Greek sandals have a business future.
They met through mutual friends and they immediately found out that they shared the same enthusiasm for handmade Greek tradition and Greek mythology, and joined forces to fill a gap in the market.
The pair launched their first collection in 2010 with 31 different designs, including the now famous winged buckle around the ankle.
Although their move was risky because of the financial crisis, the success was marked with the very first order that came from the French boutique Colette and the famous e-shop Net-a-Porter. The deal concerned 6,000 leather sandals.
As a business mind, Nikolas had realised that in the field of fashion, the consumer is looking for authentic brands with a strong identity and strong history.
The rest is history and in the next decade the success story of AGS becomes a topic in the New York Times, while stars such as Elle Macpherson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Gwyneth Paltrow launch them as the must have of the summer.
This year they celebrated ten years since the founding of the brand, with an anniversary collection inspired by Greek statues - such as the one that has as a reference point a female figurine of the late geometric period wearing Lilliputian sandals - which includes some of their iconic designs renewed with gold prints, pyrography, embroidery.
At the same time, they promoted the first line of home items, always made of leather by hand by traditional craftsmen, and a complete line of bags, always in accordance with the brand's philosophy.
Today their collections are available in more than 55 countries in luxury outlets such as Le Bon Marche, Mytheresa and Harvey Nichols.
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