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All about Australian Women
Today’s modern woman – the female entrepreneur – needs a stylish pair of flat shoes to see the world and take the road less traveled.
When Christian Dior and Roger Vivier collaborated in the 1950s to create the much loved stiletto, they probably never anticipated women to blaze new trails that required stepping out of the kitchen and playing hostess on Friday night sit-down dinner parties.
Fast forward to present times and things have changed. Women are raising children while building businesses, creating adventures and traveling the world.
Sometimes, all at the same time.
Nicole Still, creator of bespoke Italian flats, VIAJIYU, clearly understands this.
VIAJIYU translates to freedom road. Via is ‘road’ in Italian and jiyu is the Japanese word for ‘freedom’.
“It refers to the road less traveled by today’s women,” explains the award-winning digital strategist and serial entrepreneur.
“A road where women blaze new trails everyday, making their own unique choices. It may or may not involve children but will certainly lead to adventure, travel and creation.”
With VIAJIYU, Nicole aims to connect trailblazing women around the world through their love of shoes. You design your own shoes – or select shoes designed by women with extraordinary life stories – all of which are beautifully handcrafted in Italy.
Nicole describes VIAJIYU as a movement.
“In Tokyo, we started thinking about creating the perfect pair of flats for the modern woman. The woman who travels for work and play, conceives businesses as well as children. She’s a doer and a creator, and most of all, a traveler. We want to create a brand that is a movement of women blazing new trails.”
A trailblazer herself, Nicole’s LinkedIn profile reads like a woman who can do everything – from journalist at the Chicago Tribune to executive producer at Time Magazine Online, through to award-winning stints at advertising agencies, followed by leadership roles in digital marketing for big brands like Unilever and Johnson & Johnson. At one point, she was also adjunct professor at Macquarie University teaching digital media to undergrads.
Originally from the US, Nicole’s career has sent her around the world: Asia, Europe and Australia. She describes herself as a New York gal who was all about heels until she started traveling for six months of the year to Asia where she learned the hard way. “My friend Lauren and I couldn’t find a restaurant on our first night in Tokyo after Google maps failed us. And I made the mistake of wearing high heels,” she says.
“Now I don’t travel anywhere without flats on my feet and high heels in my bag.”
“Today’s modern woman needs a stylish pair of flat shoes to see the world and take the road less traveled.”
Indeed.
Unlike a pair of sky-high stilettos, you can run after a bus or train, chase after restless toddlers, negotiate uneven paths, climb up and down staircases in the Paris metro, walk through dirt roads and gravel paths, last a thousand miles, and talk business in an amazing pair of flats.
Check out www.viajiyu.com for a stylish pair of flats.
