At the recent Festival Fete art festival in my town I came across the Molas booth and went crazy for their shoes! And that was even before finding out that they are fair trade artisan fabrics created by the indigenous Kuna people of Panama and Columbia. LOVE!
The Kuna are known for producing molas, a colorful textile art form made with the techniques of appliqué and reverse appliqué. Molas are collected as folk-art and can take two weeks to six months to create. The Molas fabric used to create the shoes for Molas4u.com are all one of a kind, fair-trade, handmade fabrics, and the shoes are assembled by the family members who run the business out of Norfolk,VA.
You can check out their website to see if they will have a booth selling shoes anywhere in your area, to see how the shoes are made, or to purchase online. I had to try on a few pairs to find the right sizing so recommend finding your size in person if you can first.
Roberto is one of the business owners & shoe designers
