Rosa Mosa

Team: Just as shoes come in pairs, there are also two sides to rosa mosa. Having met while studying footwear and accessory design at Cordwainers College in London, Salzburg born Simone Springer and Yuji Mizobuchi from Kyoto successfully collaborated on numerous fashion projects before founding their own label in 2001. The Vienna-based Japanese-Austrian design duo has since assembled a multinational pool of co-workers, suppliers, and skilled craftspeople to further add to the versatile nature of rosa mosa’s unique style.

Identity: Thinking outside the shoebox – Put an Austrian art student from a family of shoemakers and refugees together with a Japanese scholar of Buddhist philosophy, and what you get is anything but ordinary. Building upon the contrasting heritage of its founders, rosa mosa prides itself on creating locally manufactured goods with cosmopolitan appeal and cultural diversity. An avant-garde project with a strong focus on handicraft and individuality that blends global fashion trends with the intimacy of tradition to create unpredictable and unique design.

Handcraft: Your feet in the best hands – Associate Members of the English “Guild of Master Craftsmen”, Simone and Yuji have woven their passion for the crafts and dedication to detail deep into the fabric of rosa mosa.  Always on the lookout for local suppliers and artisans with extraordinary skills, the duo has collaborated with rug makers from Salzburg, Hungarian basket weavers as well as traditional fabric printers and dyers. rosa mosa adopts and adapts old techniques to find new inspiration and revive time-honoured classics in a modern environment.

Materials: Quality over quantity – Since rosa mosa’s shoes, bags and accessories are created in small production runs, it depends on traditional European producers to supply highest quality materials processed with the utmost skill and care. The wicker is hand-woven, the leather indigo-dyed in Burgenland, and all hides are processed using a natural method called vegetable tanning. This old-fashioned technique provides a unique look and feel, which is gentle on the wearer’s feet as well as the environment. Thanks to its unpredictability and varying colour nuances, the process gives every shoe a one-off flair.