Roger and Sarah Adams

RoSa Shoes online shop was founded in 2006 by musician/shoe designer Roger Adams and his wife Sarah. However, their first commercial involvement with stiletto heeled shoes was in Brighton, England in the summer of 1983. They specialized at first in collecting and selling vintage "old stock" shoes of early 1960s origin but eventually moved over to the contemporary pointed-toe styles produced back then for the "alternative" street fashion scene by a few small East London factories which mainly existed to supply these styles to the King's Road, Kensington High Street and Carnaby Street. (See Why Pointed Stilettos? for more on this.)

By 1988, inspired by their dealings with "old-stock" shoes, Roger and Sarah had designed and launched their own first collection of high quality handmade early 1960s-influenced styles. The shoes were a crossover between fetish and high fashion and were well-received internationally, featuring frequently in the fashion press (Elle, Tatler, Paris Vogue, etc.) They were worn by celebrities including Madonna and Milla Jovovitch, stocked in London by Katharine Hamnett, Kim West, Cover Girl and Skin Two Retail and used in projects by top photographers on the fetish scene, notably Trevor Watson and the legendary Bob Carlos Clarke.

Faced with a severe economic recession in the UK, persistent production difficulties and the almost total demise of the British shoe component manufacturing industry, Roger and Sarah reluctantly quit the shoe business in the early 1990s to pursue other careers, leaving further marketing of their first collection of designs with a small family firm of London bespoke shoemakers who had been manufacturing for them. Roger revived his musical activities while Sarah enrolled at university which subsequently led to a highly fulfilling career in education. The original "Roger and Sarah Adams" shoe designs subsequently reappeared over the years under various brand names, some of which may be familiar to high heel fans.

Towards the end of the 1990s, European shoe designers re-launched pointed toes into mainstream fashion. Many of the new shoes featured beautifully extended toe shapes resembling the original stiletto styles of the early 1960s. Except, sadly, in one important aspect - they all lacked a genuine stiletto heel.

Eventually, in 2005, Roger and Sarah, (still unable to walk past a quality shoe shop without investigating its contents) became aware of a new type of ultra-thin Italian heel, surpassing even the finest vintage stiletto heels of 1960 and much more reliable in construction. A decision was made to return to designing shoes and a new collection was born under a new label, using the shorter and catchier brand name, RoSa, derived from the first two letters of Roger and Sarah's respective names.

Thanks to the Internet, there now needed to be no costly "bricks and mortar" retail shop and no wholesale to other shops to keep up the turnover. The exclusive worldwide RoSa outlet would be the online shop. This remains the case to this day - a strategy which has enabled RoSa Shoes to survive and consolidate, with regular clients in most countries of the world. Even today, despite numerous approaches from would-be stockists and agents, genuine RoSa Shoes can only be purchased direct from the RoSa Shoes website.

The first RoSa Shoes collection in 2006 combined a 10cm stiletto heel with a long pointed toe, made to Roger's specifications. It has always been RoSa Shoes' proud claim that their designs have the most extreme pointed toe in the world. In the words of Sarah Adams, "There is no such thing as too pointed!" The following Spring saw the introduction of a higher version - the RoSa 12cm High Stiletto. In February 2009 this shoe was featured, worn by top model Lara Stone, in the New York Times Sunday magazine (Women's Fashion, Spring 2009), prompting an upsurge of interest from US customers.

These shoes have now been replaced by a new collection featuring improved upper styling and an equally slender, but slightly higher 13cm stiletto heel. The designs are perhaps reminiscent of Roger and Sarah's earlier high heeled shoes from the late 1980s, but more stylish, more wearable, more "stiletto" and generally more in keeping with how Roger and Sarah originally wanted their shoes to be.

Variations on the 13cm stiletto heel include an early 1950s-style round "ballerina" toe, a Paris-influenced semi-point toe and of course, the extravagant RoSa Shoes signature long point. Also added to the collection are platform stiletto designs with open or round toe and higher heels, made possible by the raised platform sole. The platforms started off at 3cm but were later increased to 5cm, enabling a higher heel and improved walking thanks to a more curved "rocker" contour under the toe. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the RoSa Shoes label, there are plans for another new collection later in 2016, this time returning to a 10cm heel with extreme pointed toe.

Over the past few years, Roger and Sarah Adams' RoSa Shoes designs have appeared in photographic calendars for shoe devotees produced by Workman Publishing of New York. They have been featured by the Virtual Shoe Museum of the Netherlands and in the book "Shoes A-Z" (Thames & Hudson) by author Jonathan Walford, the founding curator of the world-famous Bata Shoe Museum of Toronto.

Recently, megastar Rihanna chose to perform in RoSa/51 black patent pointed slingbacks at the Billboard Music Awards 2016 in Las Vegas. She now has the shoes in other colours and appeared in her baby pink pair during Paris Fashion week.

Roger and Sarah Adams have always drawn inspiration from their early days in Brighton, England, as collectors and purveyors of vintage 1960s pointed stiletto shoes. They continue to live and work in the UK, but their shoes are now made in Italy by experienced craftsmen in a region known for designer-quality shoe production. Nevertheless, RoSa Shoes remain competitively priced.

In the new RoSa Shoes range, ideas evocative of the original stiletto "golden era" combine with well-chosen components, good quality materials, craftsmanship and a modern perspective to create an outstanding collection of essential stiletto-heeled shoes and boots.

To complement their shoe designs, Roger and Sarah have also now introduced The Little Black Hobble Skirt which is a range of made-to-measure skirts in the irresistible tight "hobble" style, made in a variety of fabrics and a choice of lengths.

As a celebration of the shoes, an exclusive "Stilettos by RoSa" silk scarf was also commissioned from a top Italian silk manufacturer in Como, designed to look especially wonderful when worn in what is now usually referred to as "Sloane Street Style"  (a headscarf tied unusually high on the chin, just below the lips) as featured on the cover of the original "Roger and Sarah Adams" mail order catalogue (see slideshow below)

Memory Lane (a slide show of images from earlier days!)
  

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