MANILA, Philippines - Eman Pineda is raving about his recent trip to Los Angeles where, believe it or not, it was his first time to visit.
“Before it was all about New York.” In true New Yorker style, he is dressed in his usual head-to-toe black regalia. I notice under the light that he has layered a thin, almost diaphanous sweater over a black T-shirt, which is on-trend yet remains sartorially classic paired with black pants and shoes.
“But LA is so nice, it’s so different!” he then contends. He continues to rhapsodize about his newfound love for the West Coast, as he described a street, the name of which he couldn’t recall, but I assumed to be Melrose Avenue. We sit across each other at the dining table, with matching plush upholstered chairs. We weren’t in his home but on the first floor of Adora Department Store in Greenbelt 5.
I tell him about my latest New York escapades, home to the pseudo-fictional Carrie Bradshaw who trots in her Blahniks from her apartment at the non-existent 245 E. 73rd Street. Unlike Los Angeles, where car culture is the norm, on the streets of Manhattan thousands of Carrie clones suffer for the sake of paying homage to their fashion patron saint.
But even Sarah Jessica Parker herself has found the panacea for the many dead toenails, blisters and bunions they’ve suffered in vain. She wears Pedro Garcia shoes.
Eman, the general manager of Adora, says that Pedro Garcia has achieved the formula of bringing both comfort and design to their shoes. And true enough, as I wander around the third floor of Adora, there is an entire wing dedicated to Pedro Garcia shoes displayed on clear shelves, where I try on several pairs. From pointy ballet shoes in satin with frayed finishing to Swarovski-studded flip-flops, the flat shoes were no-brainers in terms of comfort level. The true test, however, was to try on a pair of high-heeled stilettos that most women have come to both fear and desire.
As someone who has walked down many runways in the highest of high heels and the most painful of them all, the black booties in a suede finish with a slight platform in front felt like no other pair I have ever tried before. Wearing Pedro Garcia, I feel almost invincible, and imagine that one can do practically anything in these shoes: dance the shuffle, play a game of tag, or hey, be a graceful Black Swan in them.
The secret of their comfort lies in the mold, where special attention is given to the area where the balls of the feet touch the sole. Whether flats or high heels, the landing cushion is the same.
No doubt these shoes are beautiful but “not overtly designed,” Eman injects. “The designs are seasonless. This is why most of our customers who buy their first pair of Pedro Garcia shoes come back and buy their second one in the same style, but in a different color. And sometimes, even a third time but in a different texture.”
The production of a single pair is neither outsourced nor largely operated, but made under one roof of a privately owned company in Spain that involves 89 people from start to finish. “The Pedro Garcia family, now in its third generation, is very much so ‘Spanish’ in their lifestyle,” Eman says, having met them in Alicante. “It’s not about work, work, work. They value their comfort, which is very reflective of the brand’s philosophy.”
In the same way, it explains why he has easily fallen in love with LA but at the same time remains faithful in his devotion to New York. Why do we have to choose to be only one or the other? One can live the fast-paced city life yet still give in to and adopt the more laid-back attitude of a beach bum.
Pedro Garcia designs are emblematic of the same hybrid, showcasing both the aesthetic and the pragmatic, all rolled into a single pair of shoes. Or two, or three on a woman’s shoe shelf.
* * *
Pedro Garcia shoes are available at Adora in Greenbelt 5, Makati.