HOW IT STARTED
Two hundred steps, a steep Italian mountain and a wedding full of Lebanese women turned Rania Tueni-Gebara into a shoe designer. Fearing the fury of her heel-clad wedding guests upon learning they would have to walk 20 minutes and up more than 200 mountain steps from chapel to cliff-side reception, Gebara invested in comfy sandals for all.
"I've been a shoeholic since I was a child, so I designed my own flats."The wedding brought more change than she might have expected. In France, Gebara worked as a marketing professional of luxury goods for international labels such as Hotel de Crillon and Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome in Paris.
But her marriage kick-started her entry into fashion design and the launching of her women's shoe line: Boho Shoes.
"Crazy women, as usual, they didn't take the sandals off the whole night" she said. "Later they told me, ‘We want more, we didn't remove them all summer."