My name is Monalisa Abimbola Azeh and I am CEO of Mona Matthews. I actually studied law and practiced for over 15 years before I launched out into a totally different world.
I started designing shoes in 1999 for myself because I couldn’t find the kind of shoes I liked in my size.
Why?
Because I have #extrawidefeet.
At a point I used to take paracetamol before going to a party. I am serious.
Infact I was like Cinderella. I timed how long I could stay out and once time was up, I was out of the event no matter how much fun I was having.
As I was still practicing law, I needed to wear black court shoes. It was hell.
Haa I forgot to mention one foot, my right foot is wider than my left. Yes I know everybody has one foot slightly wider than the other but mine is extreme.
This is because I have a bunion on it. (That is the bone at the base of my big toe juts out. ) So my right foot is one size wider than my left. So very often I would have my right shoe actually splitting in the middle arrghgh!
So I started designing shoes for myself that were creative interesting and comfortable.
I found a really great leather market where I could buy all that I needed to make shoes and bags.
So fast forward to 2002 and Mona Matthews was born.
I started from home and started by taking orders from my customers and outsourcing production to my team of shoemakers.
This has actually helped us in this season because we haven’t had to stop production completely.
Thank you @bell_africana for getting me to start telling my story here.