Shoe brand Bionda Castana reinvents itself with bespoke and zero-waste strategy

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Nov 12, 2018

Luxury British brand Bionda Castana is relaunching this month after a two-year break with a an interesting new approach that it says will tackle the issue of unsold stock and help it cut waste.

Co-founders Jennifer Portman and Natalia Barbieri announced on Friday that the brand is starting a new chapter with a made-to-order approach. As well as cutting waste, this also underlines the importance of bespoke products as luxury sector growth continues to outstrip that of lower price points.

Each month, four limited-edition styles from the brand’s archive will be available to buy via the Bionda Castana website. The brand will take orders from the first Wednesday of the month until the first Sunday, with the shoes being delivered to the consumer direct from a Milan-based factory within three weeks.

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Each pair will be produced using surplus material from the Bionda Castana library, a move that will give the collections a “more accessible price point” than before.

“We felt it was imperative to balance the need to create alongside the absolute necessity to preserve our planet too,” said co-founder Natalia Barbieri.

Before it ceased trading in 2016, the brand had many celebrity fans including Keira Knightley, Alexa Chung, Eva Mendes, Kate Bosworth and Jessica Alba. Global stockists included Harrods, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols, and it had a standalone boutique in London’s Belgravia.

This November, Bionda Castana is bringing back its Lana, Nicole and Bay pumps, as well as the Denni flat.