New Russian shoe brands: Almost Antoinette

The Shoes Report spoke with Natalia Frolova and Kristina Vronskaya, owners of the Almost Antoinette shoe brand, about the nuances of developing the handmade shoe brand in Russia.

The handmade shoe brand Almost Antoinette was born in Moscow six years ago during a period of growing fashion for loafers, the start of Instagram network development and the appearance of the first designer clothes markets in the Russian capital. All this provided favorable conditions for the launch and active promotion of a new brand of elegant handmade loafers, which was based on the romantic and tragic story of the last Queen of France, Marie Antoinette. Founders of the brand Natalia Frolova and Kristina Vronskaya got down to business, possessing the basics of fashion design, knowledge of the rules of promotion on social networks and starting capital in 90 thousand rubles. For two years the project has reached a payback, and today the monthly turnover of the business for sewing loafers Almost Antoinette is about 350 thousand rubles.

Judging by the Almost Antoinette blog on Instagram, are you sewing not only loafers?

Kristina Vronskaya - founder of the brand of loafers Almost Antoinette

Kristina Vronskaya: Yes, we also have brogues, oxfords, classic pumps, fur-trimmed sandals, and espadrilles are next. But our core style is still loafers. Sometimes we're inspired by new models and release them in limited quantities. We have a workshop in Moscow that makes shoes for us. The craftsmen help us with both the sewing and the design. Recently, tragedy struck: our head craftsman passed away at the age of 57. This is a great loss for us; it was fascinating to talk to him, and he also helped us with the design of new models. Now we can only hope that the apprentices who worked with him for many years will not be affected by the production process.

We do not have our own official showroom, we sell shoes through Instagram and partner showrooms in Moscow and in some other cities of Russia. You can also find our loafers in the Moscow Tsvetnoy department store, where we are represented in one of the corners.

Your business is already six years old, how did it all begin?

Kristina Vronskaya: Everything turned out easily and spontaneously. Natasha and I have been friends since childhood, and this was her first idea to start producing loafers. She worked in a similar project, where the business idea was also related to sewing loafers, but the implementation was lame. The business owner was not very attentive to her business, and the quality of the product was average. At some point, I quit my job, and the two of us had the idea to create our own project, our own brand of loafers. Both of us really like Sofia Coppola's film “Marie Antoinette”, we were inspired by this story, many ideas for creating a brand appeared at once, a logo was born.

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Natalia Frolova: Loafers just then became fashionable in Moscow, and this coincided with the beginning of the promotion of the Instagram network. Working in the previous project, I helped the hostess in the development of embroideries for loafers, patterns for embroideries were created on the basis of emblems and monograms of Tsarist Russia. But it seemed to me that this is a little not what is needed. In the history of Marie Antoinette and in the style of the French royal court, we saw more romance.

But loafers, after all, were originally Italian shoes?

Kristina Vronskaya: It's really hard to say for sure whether loafers are Italian, London, or French. Italian brands simply took up this style and created their own legend about its origins. And in Sofia Coppola's film, our beloved Kristen Dunst ran around in shoes very similar to loafers. They were made of suede or velvet.

Natalia Frolova: So, at some point, we both had some free time, and we decided to try making our first batch. To do this, we needed to find a manufacturer in Russia, and surprisingly, we found a workshop quickly.

Kristina Vronskaya: It all came together very quickly. We believe it's important that the shoes are handcrafted in our workshop with meticulous attention to detail; it's a kind of quality guarantee. Of course, we could have simplified things, and many have suggested outsourcing large-scale shoe production to factories in Turkey or China. But we're not aiming for mass sales; we want to control the process and stand behind our product.

It turns out that the two of you are completely involved in this project, is this your main source of income for you?

No, we have other projects, however, the opportunity to do something else has appeared relatively recently. For the first two to three years, we practiced Almost Antoinette 24 hours a day. Now it has become easier - you learn more, the process is being established, it is becoming easier to work. After all, everything is done in different places - there are materials, embroidery is ordered, shoes are sewn ...

Kristina Vronskaya: We generally have a female version of the business. We meet with clients, discuss design, take measurements. We have long-term relationships with many clients only because they like the process itself. From the very beginning, we decided that we should be customer-oriented, because the high price of the product should be justified. It is very strange when some of our designers put the price of their shoes above average, but at the same time do not offer any service. And the very concept of loafers implies cosiness, impressiveness, friendliness.

And how much are your loafers?

Kristina Vronskaya: On Instagram, we set prices between 22 and 25 rubles. But we do offer discounts; if we have unsold sizes left, shoes can be purchased for 11-15 rubles. We also offer discounts for regular customers. Some brands set a maximum price for their products, but we don't. We even sold a pair of men's loafers in Grozny for 87 rubles.

Is there a difference in price based on the materials used - suede or velvet?

Kristina Vronskaya: No. The velvet we use is more expensive than suede.

But velvet loafers quickly lose their appearance. They must be very carefully looked after ...

Kristina Vronskaya: Everything has its nuances, and there are also different types of velvet. In some ways, yes, they lose their appearance faster, and nothing compares to genuine leather and suede. The first velvet we used was very expensive, but it turned out to be poorly stretched, so we didn't use it again. If we're using a fabric upper in shoemaking, we have to pay attention to how the longitudinal thread stretches. It should stretch a certain way, no more and no less, and you have to test everything. Fabric quality isn't easy to understand from the start. In some ways, velvet is more difficult to work with, and in others, easier. Because velvet is a single piece of fabric that can be stretched and will look the same everywhere, whereas suede has a non-uniform structure—it's thicker in some places, thinner in others, and you'd be better off not breathing over some pieces at all.

Natalia Frolova: Once we bought a very beautiful nude suede, almost the last piece, and the master, pulling it, ruined three pairs. In some places she was too thin and torn. It happens that several of our customers order a certain type of suede at once, and you have to run around looking for just that, but this is a pleasant concern.

But your embroidery in the form of a monogram, have you patented this design? Can it be copied?

Yes, this is our trademark. But in terms of copying, we are not very protected, if you slightly change some branch in the pattern - this will be a different sign, and it will be impossible to make any claims against it.

Did you draw a monogram yourself?

Kristina Vronskaya: Yes, it took a week. We studied engravings, somewhere we rounded something. We had different variations. We took some elements and arranged. We use our monogram not only for ornament for the top of loafers, we had a very beautiful limited collection of clothes, which we decorated with elements of our embroidery. So the bombers were embroidered. Natasha defended her graduation diploma in our embroidery.

For which university?

At first I studied in Stroganovka, and then I moved to the Higher School of Economics, they now have a very cool faculty of graphic design.

Kristina Vronskaya: And I am a journalist by my first education, but I have been sewing since childhood. But when we started practicing loafers, I decided that I needed to somehow pump in this area and finished the course at the British school of design.

Kristina Vronskaya: Initially, we had a paltry start-up capital—around 90 rubles—and with that, we made our first 10 pairs of loafers. Friends helped us shoot the models. After that, we invested practically nothing, only a few small things. Everything just took off, and now we have a decent authorized capital. Markets were a big help at first. Lambada Market was our first platform. They have a curated selection of brands they showcase, and they took us on. Then word of mouth, Instagram, an interview in The Hopes & Fears, and support from The Village, who used our models for shoots and special projects, all helped.

Natalia Frolova: In our collaboration, Kristina designs the collection, we work on the details together, and I handle the photography and promotion. I create the story and figure out how to effectively present it.

Kristina Vronskaya: You can't get by without it these days. A beautiful photograph is sometimes worth more than the product itself. Although you can't judge a product by its photograph.

Natalia Frolova: When we started the project, I thought that I could do anything, I was sure that I was shooting well, but it turned out that the subject photo was not so simple, I had to master it.

And how many pairs a month do you order?

Kristina Vronskaya: Depends on the time of year. From spring to autumn a month sells somewhere from 80 to 100 with more than steam, sometimes 60 pairs. Activity is also observed on New Year's Eve. But even in the deadliest seasons of the week we sell two or three pairs.

Instagram says it all depends on advertising. Give, go orders, do not give - failure?

Natalia Frolova: Advertising plays a big role, of course, but sometimes it's completely unclear where people are coming from. There are certain Instagram mechanisms that I can't quite grasp, so sometimes people come from somewhere even without advertising. We have brand fans, people who met us at markets; they happily post photos and share our posts, but they generally don't buy anything; they're not our target audience.

And who is your target audience?

Kristina Vronskaya: Women from 30 to 50 years of age, wealthy, with chic. And the fans are young people from 13 to 25 years.

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That is, who likes the posts and who buys are different people?

Kristina Vronskaya: Yes. Our main customers will buy and never post photos of their shoes on Instagram. We have a client who basically does not want to tell anyone where she bought our loafers.

Did you immediately determine the price of the shoes?

Kristina Vronskaya: No, determining the price was not an easy task.

Likely, at markets at first they sold cheaper?

Natalia Frolova: Initially, we wanted to sell shoes at a lower price and tried our best to reduce our margins to keep them affordable, but it didn't work. Apparently, a certain psychological factor plays a role—people think that a high-quality product made from good materials and handmade can't be cheap. If the price is low, it's suspicious.

Kristina Vronskaya: In fact, customers are more pleased to part with a reasonable amount of money and feel like they've bought something, not just another mass-produced product. As soon as we raised the price of our loafers, almost doubling it, sales immediately doubled. Incidentally, these models can't be mass-produced.

Interestingly, it is believed that among Instagram users there are few people in the 50 area, that this social network has a more youthful audience?

Natalia Frolova: I disagree that 50-year-olds aren't on Instagram. We have clients that age who follow us on that social network. A common response when we ask, "How did you hear about our brand?" is, "I came across it on Instagram." At one point, we were featured on Instagram's "Recommended" section, which also had a significant impact on brand promotion, and subscribers to our channel started pouring in.

How long did it take you to start earning?

Kristina Vronskaya: We arrived at a profit in less than two years. Started to work as a plus.

And when did you raise the price?

Ksenia Vronskaya: In the first four or five months. We were constantly participating in markets, and it was the Sunday Up Market that made us think about pricing; they were charging a 150% markup. That market seems to no longer exist.

There were many similar events - in the Moscow Gallery (Fashion Season shopping gallery), in Tsvetnoy in Lambada and on Neglinnaya. Now it is slowly dying, it is strange that they do not change the format.

Natalia Frolova: For me, the markets were truly stressful. Working there is physically and mentally demanding—very early start times, two days in a row, and a huge crowd. You have to communicate directly with customers, and we're not salespeople. But now we've learned that, too.

At first, we taught ourselves not to start sentences with the word “no”, not to apologize every five seconds. We started reading books on sales techniques.

Do you think that such a business model as selling through Instagram will remain with you?

We are thinking about how we will develop in the future. I want to grow somewhere. At the moment, of course Instagram is inevitable, but this social network is losing its popularity due to the huge amount of advertising. Right now, literally everything is being sold on Instagram, and people are tired of this and have stopped responding to offers. We will definitely need to look for new ways of implementation.

Don't have an office?

Kristina Vronskaya: We hold official meetings outside of the studio. I have my own workshop where I make clothes… and at one point we wanted to open our own showroom, but when you consider the costs, you realize it's an unnecessary luxury. I don't pay anything on Instagram. I don't want to waste 80 rubles.

In showrooms, we give our shoes only on terms of purchase, we agree to implement in rare cases, when it comes to sales in status stores.

Have you tried selling through large online sites like Lamoda?

Kristina Vronskaya: We wanted to work with Aziele; it suits us better than Lamoda. They don't need the endless sorting and batch-based approach that everyone demands – "There are only a few styles left in a certain size range – give us more!"

At first, we knew little and played according to the given rules. For example, the store has adopted a range of sizes - from 35 to 41, you must provide it, each color of each pair of five pieces. But from our own experience, we already know that 35 shoes don't need that much size. You need to make three times as many pairs of 38 and 39 size, and 35 will be enough for one. When such worthless demands are made, these couples lie, they can only be discounted. We spend time on their production, and in the end we give it back with a very small margin, and this is not interesting. Now we are trying to dictate our conditions, and we succeed. But it came only with experience.

It turns out that you do not need a warehouse?

Kristina Vronskaya: We usually arrange all shipments. Our craftsmen don't mind us storing the shoes until the courier arrives. Occasionally, my apartment becomes a warehouse, but that's not often.

When you started, there was practically no competition in the market, but now?

Natalia Frolova: Competition is fiercer now, but not so much in terms of loafers, but rather because Russia has more high-quality handmade shoes in general, as well as strong shoe designers and craftsmen. There are now more opportunities for developing your own shoe brand in Russia.