Aeyde

Aeyde

Aeyde was founded in Berlin in spring 2015 by Luisa Dames and Constantin Langholz-Baikousis, who met in 2011 working at Zalando, where Dames ran the private-label division and its production across India, Bangladesh and China. They launched with about twelve pairs of shoes made in family-owned factories in Italy's Marche region.

Shoes

The premise was to take Italian handmade shoemaking and strip out the markup, which is why the design language is so plain. Everything is still made at family-run factories in the Marche, one of Italy's oldest footwear regions. Dames has been explicit that the shoes are meant to be resoled by a cobbler rather than replaced.

More Shoes

The name is a respelling of Eddi, short for Edith, a co-founder's grandmother. The range has grown from twelve styles to roughly two hundred a season, selling into nearly thirty countries, with headquarters on a full floor of the landmark tower at Strausberger Platz in Berlin. Langholz-Baikousis left in 2021 to start something else, leaving Dames as the public face.

Our honest take

No awards, no celebrity history, no runway. This is a supply-chain business with good taste, and the Marche factories are the reason to buy. Go for the minimal boots and pumps rather than the occasional trend shape, which is where the restraint slips.