Three years ago, I was walking in the streets of Toulouse with my friend, Carole, the owner of the shop Département Féminin, and we ran into Gemma. (It’s funny how I can point back to everything I’ve done and seen through the blog, right?) As I often do when someone catches my eye in the street, I went straight over to her, we took some photos, and ended up getting coffee and becoming friends.

And Carole and Gemma, who both live in Toulouse, also became great friends.

Gemma is Spanish and she spends her vacations in Ibiza. That’s where she discovered these espadrilles that she’s been wearing for years. They’re straight out of the traditional costume worn in the Ball Pagès, a traditional dance in Ibiza. She and Carole decided that the espadrilles needed to have a life outside of the borders of the island, so they got involved with artisans in Ibiza (everything is done by hand) so that more people would know about them. Cool, right?