They’ve got a strong platform. Charlotte Stone (she / her) and Camilly Pereira (she / her) are the co-founders of footware line Charlotte Stone. Sidenote: Camilly is an employee-turned-co-founder, which is a pipeline we’re really trying to enter.

Here, we asked the entrepreneurs how they found their creative spark, which shoes they can’t live without, and why being the rainbow sherbert of brands is much better than being vanilla.

When did you both get into fashion?
CHARLOTTE: I grew up in a family of artists and designers, and my mother always had amazing clothes, so I would dress up in her closet. After trying a bunch of odd jobs in my early 20s, I went back to school to study fashion… [Before launching my brand,] I worked for apparel companies and would build their shoe collection. I’d do all the design, production, all of that. I realized I had a point of view that I wanted to explore, so I quietly started my line.
CAMILLY: I went to school for art and economics, and I just knew I wanted to do something creative. I found Charlotte Stone, and I wanted to wear their shoes, but they were all sold out! I learned they were based in LA, so when I moved here, I randomly emailed them, like, “I don’t know if you guys are hiring, but I’m very interested.”

How did you go from an employee-boss relationship to co-founders?
CHARLOTTE: I wanted to hire someone to take over the sketch work for [my other job at] Joie A La Plage, and Camilly is a really good artist. Then I realized, “Wait, this woman’s really smart and has way more to offer than sketching.” So Camilly basically took over Charlotte Stone while I was working at Joie to fund the brand. I wanted to give her the co-founder title because she deserved it and had done so much work that, frankly, I couldn’t have done without her.
CAMILLY: I started to take on more and more things, and there was a turning point for both of us where we realized this brand had legs. I helped inject a voice and a personality, so I feel like it’s half my baby, too.

What’s a pair of hero shoes in your closet?
CHARLOTTE: Oh, I have a massive collection of about 600 pairs of vintage and collectible shoes. In the late ‘90s, I bought a pair of Calvin Klein stilettos that were just too good to be true. I even paid my rent late because I had to have them. But I still love them, so they were worth it.
CAMILLY: Now my closet is exclusively Charlotte Stone, but I didn’t realize how important shoes were to me until my family sent pictures of me wearing crazy shoes as a child. When I was with my family from Brazil in the 2000s, there were these denim platforms embroidered with flowers, and I begged everyone to give them to me. Finally, one aunt caved.

It seems like Charlotte Stone only makes statement shoes. Were you nervous to launch a brand with such an eclectic style?
CAMILLY: It’s funny, because when we were doing wholesale at the beginning, we’d always do traditional colors to be marketable to stores, and there was always black left at the end of the season. Everybody just wanted color from us. They wanted fun. We [realized] we needed to make something that is black, but not black—a fun neutral. Charlotte’s so good at mixing colors and doing unique things, so we started to lean into that more and more.
CHARLOTTE: Our customers immediately reacted. Then it blew up with the Lenu shoe. Both sides didn’t match and our CFO was like, “Are you guys kidding me?” We ordered 25 pairs, and they sold out in a day. Then we went bananas after that.
CAMILLY: It’ll be so funny. [Laughing.] Charlotte will text me and be like, “I have a crazy idea.”
CHARLOTTE: And I’m [thinking], “Camilly’s going to think this is weird.” Then she’s like, “Do it.”