Shoe Love: Lotta From Stockholm...

Image from the Swedish Hasbeen's Inspiration page

I was drooling over some Swedish Hasbeen's the other week, the cult swedish shoe that every blogger in the land has been lusting after. There I was browsing through their website, as I had done many times before, getting stuck, as I had many times before, at the part about the price. They are about £150 which is a little north of pricey for me. 

Then, I'm not sure how exactly, I accidentally stumbled on another Swedish shoe company called Lotta From Stockholm. I clicked onto their website and-gasp- they had almost exactly same styles but at a third of the price- around £50. Before I got too excited however, I wanted to find out about their ethics, so I sent them an email*. I was a little surprised to receive an email back from Lotta herself explaining that they are a tiny husband and wife team (awww) working from Greater London . Their clogs are made by three other family businesses all based in the EU, the vast majority in Sweden itself, and all the clog materials are also sourced from within the EU from carefully managed sources*.  Brills.

We ended up having a lovely chat via email; about companies being tempted into cheap production and about my blog and that one day my husband and I would like to start a business together  etc etc. Anyway to cut a long story short, she ended up sending me a free pair of shoes to review for my blog. WHOA. This is the first time that anything like this has happened so I was pretty stoked. I thought long and hard then said if I liked them and they fit ok that I would blog about them. And, well,  I adore them. They have had two outings so far and have attracted compliments from strangers both times.  I love their 70's look and the colour of the leather. The heel height is perfect for me (I'm paranoid that I'm too tall to wear high heels, I know its ridiculous) and they are also super comfortable too. 

Anyway, enough waffle, here they are...

I painted my nails specially...

(Although don't look too closely, I'm crap at painting my nails.)

So, thank you Lotta From Stockholm. This was a true high point in a month which happens to be a completely skint ass poor one. Painting my toe nails was another high point in my skint ass poor month,  too. (Barry M in case you were wondering)

Lotta currently has an amazing sale in which some of their shoes, in lots of sizes, are going for around £30- wow. Lets fill the world with Swedish clog love.... 

*I like to be an 'active consumer' and I like to ask about things. Sometimes fearlessly. Occasionally stupidly. My friends and family laugh at me for this (!) but I think its important to be informed about what your buying. 

* Small family run businesses based in the EU, and materials sourced from managed sources in the EU are two big social and environmental ticks, although I'd be even happier if the leather was recycled. Compromise is however, part and parcel of ethical shopping and there is no such thing as a 100% ethical item of clothing. Anyway. I'll stop there.

Full Disclosure: Lotta sent me a pair of shoes as a one off with no strings attached. If I didn't like them I would have simply sent them back and not mentioned them on my blog. There are no ongoing deals or anything and I get nothing if you choose to click through to their site.