Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. Correct?
Wrong—and we’ve got the stylish Stella Quimbo to prove it.
Quimbo graduated summa cum laude of her batch in UP Diliman and is currently full professor at its School of Economics while sitting as chair of the same department.
She’s also the brains behind Lupe Saenz, a brand of premium leather shoes designed and made locally in Marikina. It recently opened its first standalone store and launched an e-commerce website.
It’s not a coincidence that she chose Marikina as the location of her store.
She and her husband, Congressman Miro Quimbo, call this city home. “Miro and I have lived long enough to have experienced the glory days of the Marikina shoe industry. My school shoes were Gregg shoes, and practically everyone in my school also wore Gregg shoes,” she says.
But these ain’t school shoes Lupe Saenz is selling, though they will remind shoppers of classic designs—from ballerinas and flats to office pumps and wedges.
“My immediate task was to produce shoes with four attributes: genuine leather shoes, handcrafted, classic designs with an exciting twist, and, most importantly, they had to be Marikina-made,” explains Stella.
The shoes are “inspired by the women who wear them,” including the widow of former DILG secretary Jesse Robredo. “I wanted to sell the lowly chinelas. The inspiration was Leni Robredo, who as we all know, attaches special meaning to the chinelas. Of course now that she’s in Congress, the chinelas has to be a level higher than the usual. So we combined cow leather with snakeskin to produce the Leni slippers,” she says.
Lupe Saenz was first made available two years ago at Bonne Bouche in Greenbelt 5, but that store has since closed down. “So I became homeless and have since decided to retreat back to Marikina where it really all started. Primarily, I want to be closer to the makers. I have also decided to go online, which has a far greater reach than a single store,” she says.
The shoes are made by artisans using traditional shoe-making methods, who had to re-acquaint themsleves with their craft since they stopped making leather shoes following a decline in demand many years ago.
Lupe Saenz’ vision is to turn Marikina into Asia’s shoe hub, and that starts with the Design Lab, an online facility for shoe design, prototyping, and pilot marketing. Applicants submit shoe designs which, if chosen, will be prototyped and marketed by Lupe Saenz.
One step at a time.
Lupe Saenz, 2/F 124 MA Roxas St, Bgy Calumpang, Marikina; +63 917 8810207, www.lupesaenz.com. Mon-Friday 9am-6pm, Sat & Sun by appointment.
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