Daily Front Row

2010 April 14

George Esquivel Heads to Beijing

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George Esquivel
ANDREAS BRANCH/patrickmcmullan.com View Gallery

(NEW YORK) George Esquivel's star has been steadily on the rise since his nomination for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund last year, collaborating with the likes of Zero Maria Cornejo, Timo Weiland, and Loden Dager for special shoe collections—not to mention the seriously sexy lace-up spats created for Juan Carlos Obando’s Fall 2010 show. But now, the Orange County, California, native and cobbler extraordinaire is taking the next step: opening a standalone store in Beijing, China.

“We did a partnership deal, because I have some friends in Taiwan. We’re making the shoes here, and shipping them to Beijing,” he told The Daily this afternoon. “I have clients from Japan, clients from Germany, clients from China, the Middle East, all over the world, and they come to L.A. and we make shoes for them. They [Esquivel’s partners in the store opening] did the research, they studied it, they came up with a proposal—and it’s all going really well! They know the market; I really don’t understand the Chinese market in terms of how to sell there. Countries are different, but obviously my customers in China want what I do here. The soft opening is at the end of this month, and the grand opening will be in August or September.”

New Yorkers, don’t fret: Esquivel has plans in the works for you as well, if not in the immediate future. “I’d like to do something in New York similar to what I do in L.A.,” he said. “It’s a showroom, but people come in and get fitted for shoes. It’s a made-to-order showroom. That’s what I would like to do next, hopefully in the next year.” Can’t wait that long? You can pick up Esquivel’s Timo Weiland collaboration at Odin now—and we hear Barneys picked up those J.C. Obandos for fall.
EMILY GYBEN