Andrea Vargas Dieppa and Elisa Restrepo, the two Colombian natives behind hot shoe line Dieppa Restrepo seem more like friends than business partners when I meet them at their Lower East Side showroom for a chat. The laidback designers are two peas in a pod, finishing each other’s sentences and dissolving into giggles as they look back on their four years working together.

This easygoing nature is evident in the shoes they design: simple, timeless and comfortable. They are more polished than a sneaker, more masculine than a ballet flat–the perfect everyday shoe for the modern woman.

I sat down with them to learn about how these two friends managed to bring together their Colombian roots, Mexican manufacturing and New York flair to create a successful shoe business. Read on.

Fashionista: What were you doing before starting the label?
Elisa Restrepo: I went to NYU to Tisch for theater. When I graduated I became disenchanted with acting and moved to Paris. When I came back I wanted to do something different–make something. I went to Parsons and studied design, though to tell you the truth shoes was never part of that.
Andrea Vargas Dieppa: I always wanted to do shoes and it was never even an option. People said it was so hard. In school people don’t tell you all the things you can actually do. I ended up studying graphic design at SVA. I worked in advertising a bit and for American Apparel, which helped us with finding factories.

How did you two meet?
A: We had a lot of mutual friends and for years everyone was telling us that we had to meet. We would get invited to the same things all the time and everything. Finally we met, and six months later the label was born.

And how did the label come about?
E: Andrea can find beautiful things in the most unexpected places. She can get go to the hole-in-the-wall places and find something amazing. So she had found these shoes in Mexico and always wore them. Everyone thought they were rad.
A: They were like the patent leather original shoe of ours. So many people were asking about them and we realized we could make them.
E: We weren’t thinking that far ahead, we just decided to go to Mexico and investigate these shoes.

When did the label come together?
A: We just decided to do a little collection to see what happens. Then I was sitting at a café in LA wearing the shoes, and a guy commented on them. At that point we didn’t even have a brand, just a few pairs of shoes. It turned out to be Steven Alan, and he placed an order basically on the spot.