Dan Coma was making shoes with red soles long before Christian Louboutin, the French designer who turned the footwear into a global fashion statement 30 years ago.
The Romanian bag designer extraordinaire who has been stitching bespoke shoes and purses for decades remains as passionate about his craft as when he started almost 50 years ago.
What sells well? “Beautiful things sell,” he says simply. “I design beautiful things.” “Sunt creator de frumos,” somehow sounds better in Romanian.
In the 1990s, after Romania opened up after communism, he gained a new clientele. Foreigners fell in love with his designs, exquisite handmade shoes and bags in a country where the shops were still offering gray, basic merchandise. Since then, the craft of shoe-making has died out as manufacturing declined and Romania turned into a consumer market and international brands moved in. Coma now focuses on the wonderful world of bags that his clients cherish.
During a visit before Easter, he picked out a shoe on display and turned it over to reveal a red sole, synonymous with French designer. “I was making this long before Louboutin,” he joked.
Coma benefits from word of mouth recommendation, his website and social media. His clients are a mix of Romanian and foreigners. The French have traditionally been the keenest, demanding their purses and wallets bear the ‘Dan Coma’ label.
“People want something that isn’t part of ‘globalism’,” he told Universul.net. He’s involved in the entire design process. “I see a piece of leather, decide what I can make from it and who I’m making it for and then I do the publicity,” he says.
Prices range from 500 lei, about 100 euros, to up to 5,000 euros for bags made from crocodile hides which is extremely expensive. Coma’s passion takes him to Italy where he buys the best leather and visits workshops and trade fairs. “The Italians value beauty’,” he says. They also respect tradition.
On his first-floor showroom, blue, turquoise, tangerine, green, orange and and yellow purses vie for attention next to the more discreet browns and blacks. There are purses stitched from buttery soft leather; others crafted from ostrich and crocodile. One bag is made from Vatican brocade that retails for 1,000 euros a meter, woven by Bevilacqua on centuries-old looms. Music adds to the magical atmosphere.
With a shock of salt-and-pepper hair, and a calm and warm manner, Coma is also known for his partnership with wife, Doina Levintza, a scenographer and the first lady of Romanian fashion. Levintza was the first designer from Eastern Europe to show her designs at the New York fashion week and her label has been shown in Monte Carlo, Paris, Washington, New York, London, Prague, Geneva, Madrid, Berlin, Brussels and Chicago
They share the same space, a stone’s throw from the Arc de Triumf. As well as the purses, Coma has a display of old kingly helmets (actually worn by Romania’s King Michael when he was 14), handmade 19th century shoes and a wall dedicated to late Italian fashion designer Giuliana Camerino.
Modern glass stairs lead up to a light-filled showroom with a white parquet floor and starkly architectural lampshades. It’s a commercial area, but also a space displaying the exquisite objects d’art that Coma is known for, as well as dolls and bags and artisanal objects more than a century old that he has collected along the way.
He’s an official supplier for Romania’s royal family and creates objects they gift during diplomatic visits. Princess Margareta, the custodian of the crown, is one of his favorite clients.
“She is a high-quality person, very warm and she is participates in the (design) process” he said.
The late King Michael once visited the showroom with his wife, Ana, and was so fascinated by the process and tools, that a 10-minute visit went on for two hours. “It wasn’t really royal protocol (to visit me) as I’m a craftsman,” not someone of royal or political rank.
He’s also served music royalty: Madonna who held a concert for 60,000 in Bucharest in 2009. Her team sought him out after she broke one of her precious boots on stage. After that he started making Madonna-style high-heeled laced up boots with a gold leather lining.
Asked about his place on a crowded market that favors imports, he says: “The system is very globalized. How long can I resist?”
It’s a question he’s been asking himself for years. But his creativity, innovation and love of beauty remain strong, and the inspiration for making beautiful bags is as familiar as his own skin. And that is the unique thing his customers keep coming back for.
