designer

Michael Sergi (Photo by Barbara Turi)

Michael Sergi (Photo by Barbara Turi)

About

Michael Sergi was born on December 25th, 1989 in Switzerland but is of Italian background.  His father has owned a shoe repair shop since 1990.  At the age of 15 Michael started going to his father’s shop every weekend to help repair shoes, which he found he enjoyed doing.  The shop was a good established business but it was becoming outdated.

 

Eventually Michael became an insurance broker so his father would not be the only breadwinner in the family and did so for five years, but he never gave up wanting to bring innovation and creativity into his father’s business and expand it to include custom shoe design and manufacturing.

 

In order to follow his vision and gain the necessary knowledge for this work he went to London to a school of shoemaking, the London College of Fashion, where he learned the special skills of producing handmade shoes.  This coursework opened his mind as a creative artist. Then he has been studying at the Arsutoria School in Milan to learn how to design beautiful handmade shoes and also in Florence, with the designer Stefano Bemer, in how to manufacture the shoes.

 

Having completed this specialized apprenticeship program he has now joined his father’s business. In 2017 he will take over the business, continuing what his father has been doing for 26 years, but expanding into designing and producing top quality handmade shoes, as well as repairs, in quantities suitable for mass marketing.  He aims to become a leader in this very special trade.

 

His company’s name is Da Giovanni.