Karine Arabian

Karine Arabian is a famous Armenian fashion designer. She is was born in Paris. Her father was a tailor, and her mother a contractor for Daniel Hechter. Fashion was always a part of her daily life. From the age of nine, she started reading fashion magazines, and by the age of twelve she started to customize her clothes, transforming them.

Arabian received vocagtional education, first at Paris-based fashion schools, ESMOD and then in the Studio Bercot. After the studying she worked as an assistant for Mario Shan, consultant to fashion and even developed a theater costumes. Once she passed through the flea market and saw placer pearls. Then, Karen decided to dedicate herself to making jewelry and carried away weaving, embroidery, welding.

In 1993, she showed her first collection at the international fashion festival in Hyeres, after such famous stores as Maria Luisa in Paris, Henri Bendel in New York, Kashiyama in Tokyo, signed her contract. In 1994 she was invited to work for a designer Daniel Swaroski, and from 1996 to 1998, Karin has developed and produced a number of accessories for Chanel. But in 1999 she decided to create his own company.

She was a bag an accessory designer but one day she started to design shoes. She didn’t imagine then how complicated it would be so she innocently started. It was beneficial for her that her grandfather was a shoemaker, who inducted her into the shoemaking knowledge.

The Karine Arabian collection also includes her own jewelry, belts and handbags, along with footwear. She built a substantial European business, most notably in Russia.

In 2003 Arabian moved production from France to Italy's Veneto region. The change reflected a focus on improving the quality of her line as well as an evolution of her design philosophy. Her styles have segued from 1960s- and 1970s-influenced erraticism to more romantic sophistication, ranging from $450 for a pump to $1,000 for a knee-high boot.

But Arabian acknowledges she's going to be up against numerous other suitors.

Arabian accept that although her passion originated in fall styles, she has grown to love designing and developing spring product. For instance three main themes provided inspiration for her spring '06 collection of sandals and pumps: romance, the desert and the Italian Riviera.

In addition to her own shoes, Arabian has already been approached by Swarovski to help design younger, trendier footwear under the Swarovski name.

Surrounded by inspiring male French shoemakers, from Louboutin to Frissoni to Clergerie, Arabian is in the minority as a Frenchwoman designing shoes -- a distinction she hopes will come across in the way she designs her collection.

Four years after launching her eponymous shoe collection, Arabian was hoping to court a better department-store business, hoping that her 30-style, elegant yet eclectic footwear collection will catch the attention of larger U.S. retailers such as Bergdorf Goodman, Barneys New York and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Arabian's shoes are sold at upscale boutiques, including Pasadena, Calif.-based In Soho Curve in Los Angeles and Primadonna in Marlton, N.J. Arabian is also toying with the idea of unveiling a second store, in New York.

Her cousin, Dan Yeremian, who is also of Armenian descent, serves as her business partner.