“The best shoe is the one you wear until you destroy it.”. This phrase of the protagonist is the philosophy on which the empire of Chie Mihara, a Brazilian with Japanese parents, has run a women’s shoe company bearing her name in the Alicante municipality of Elda for 21 years. She always works as a creative designer whose key point of success is aesthetics and comfort. It was manga that sparked his interest in creativity, later sculpture, and now focused more on what his profession should be, spending time in orthopedics knowing anatomy in detail and designing shoes and sandals that fit like gloves. As a result, a high-end brand emerged that exports to the whole world and launched its first women’s clothing collection this summer, following the same criteria.
Mihara was born in 1968 in Porto Alegre; three years after his parents immigrated to Brazil, first to work in the fields and then to sell food. So it has nothing to do with the paths her daughter will take later. “Mine came from -remember- manga. I liked to draw these faces with big, bright eyes. So at some point I realized that creativity and design had to be my thing.”
When she told her parents this, they advised her to go to Japan, where she could absorb the culture and language the family came from, along with prestigious schools. And said and done, because only 18 years have passed, Packed her bags to study fashion at the Fukuoka School of Designwhere he graduated. From there she moved to Tokyo and became part of the atelier of internationally known avant-garde designer Junko Koshino, where she was her assistant and pattern designer.
“Tortured and Forgotten”
Mihara at a time when fashion has turned into a story of both passion and disappointment for her. I decided to move to New York to try the statue.. Although this stage did not last very long, it was vital to enter the shoe world. “After all, the shoes are like little sculptures. They have their own structure, solid heels, toes and shapes. It’s the perfect mix of fashion and design that’s directly involved.” So the next step was to enroll at the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology in the city of skyscrapers, where to specialize in accessories and work in orthopedics; here he learned many times to respect his “tortured and tortured” feet. forgotten”.
After working in the shoe design department at Sam & Libby for two years, he started collaborating with the French luxury shoe brand Charles Jourdan, which produces in Elda, where he came to the municipality in 1994. Her husband, Francisco Sanchis, who is connected to the industry and with whom she decided to create her own brand: he works as a designer and he works as CEO.
From the firm named after the designer, the outcome of this pairing couldn’t be more positive. It invoices 15 million Euros per year and exports 95% of its production.65 percent to the EU, the rest mainly to the USA, Asia and Russia. It is also available in main stores, multi-brand boutiques and high-end shoe stores such as El Corte Inglés in Spain, La Rinascente in Italy, Neiman Marcus in the US, John Lewis in the UK and Lumine in Japan. Given that the firm manufactures all its products in this region, which is considered to be the shoe cluster, it creates 20 direct jobs, to which more than a hundred indirect jobs should be added, both in Elda and the rest of the region.
And everything is emphasized that comfort is a fundamental element, which Mihara emphasizes with a funny, cheerful and bizarre quote, insisting a thousand times over. Fair the same philosophy he applied in his new adventure.Along with the launch of her first clothing collection this summer. As he puts it, “This project basically arose out of necessity. I couldn’t find myself the clothes I liked on a daily basis, and that’s where this collection of bright colours, minimalist lines and design touches emerged.” born. Urban wear for the daily needs of mature women”.