Henri Bendel-712 Fifth Avenue at 56th Street | New York, NY 10019-4108 | (212) 247-1100 |

Tuccia Di Capri available through Labor Day 2009

Tuccia Di Capri, the shoe brand known for delicate and unique sandals, is taking a slight divergence from their boutique located on Pennsylvania Avenue in South Beach, Miami. From the start of the summer through Labor Day, a few in-house cobblers from the brand will be displaying their talents in Henri Bendel on 5th Ave, New York City.

Strolling down 5th Ave at 56th Street, the process of shoemaking is visible from Henri Bendel's front window so not surprisingly, we were too curious not to stop inside and check it out!

Here's the deal: you pick the the "ingredients" and they make your shoe (which is ready to be worn in about 30 minutes). Customers can pick from several different types of the following elements: soles, heel heights (flat, mid-wedge, high-wedge), and between 20 to 50 different types of textiles for the upper part of the shoe. Leather is also available in an abundance of colors, including metallic, patent and matte.

In addition, you can choose from braided, gold embroidered, intersecting or crossed straps, t-straps or single- toe straps. The shoes can be embellished to the max with gems, flowers, stars, or several other gorgeous options. The design of the shoe is entirely up to the wearer; for example if you don't want a strap already on the shoe you can have it removed. Also, each sandal is custom fit on your foot to ensure theperfect fit. The cobblers ensure this by encouraging you to try the shoe on and have it tightened or loosened during the process.

And if you were wondering why Henri Bendel is featuring shoes when they don't actually carry footwear collections, so were we. The collaboration between Tuccia Di Capri and Henri Bendel began when Bendel's store manager came across the Tuccia Di Capri boutique in Miami and felt that custom shoe crafting was an amazing concept and that it would have a perfect place on 5th Ave.

Originally, Tuccia Di Capri was only supposed to be in Bendel's store for about 6 weeks this summer, but the overwhelming response for these custom made shoes has resulted in an extension of their presence in the boutique. This makes sense to us, who doesn't love a pair of shoes made exactly the way you want them and built to fit only your foot!