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A shoe-in at the Oscars

Local merchants hand out schwag in Tinseltown

By: Geoff Kirbyson

Posted: 02/27/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

Silvia Chavez-Rivers, of Toto n Dot children’s shoe and apparel store, holds brand-name shoes the store will display at the Oscars today.

Amalia and Leah Rosenthal-Cristante have purchased the marketing equivalent of a lottery ticket but they'll have to wait a few weeks or months to see if they can cash it in.

The mother-and-daughter team owns Toto n Dot, a children's shoe and apparel store in Winnipeg, and represented one of 25 companies at the Academy Awards Red Carpet Style Lounge in Los Angeles over the weekend. They were handing out schwag bags to nominees from this year and the previous three years who were hanging out in the lounge.

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Inside each of their 250 reusable gift bags, which have Toto n Dot emblazoned on the sides, is a pair of Lelli Kelly shoes. Imported from Italy, the canvas shoes are made especially for little girls.

"Lelli Kelly shoes are a very popular item (at our stores). We thought they would be very popular with the Hollywood celebrity kids," Leah Rosenthal-Cristante said.

"We're the only one of the companies that has children's goods."

They hope that somebody rich and famous will take a shining to their shoes and have their children wear them on TV or in a glossy magazine, and that will lead to a small avalanche of orders as ordinary people attempt to keep up with the Jolies and Pitts. The actual award show is today.

"It's a good promotion for our store. We're able to go down as a Canadian business and tell people what we do and hopefully attract business to Canada," she said, adding the shoes retail for about $85.

Being in the fashion industry, Rosenthal-Cristante keeps up to date on the comings and goings of the Hollywood set, what's hot and what's not.

"Our customers are interested in what these people are wearing. We keep abreast of the trends and what people are looking for," she said.

Rosenthal-Cristante said she'll be sure to inform interested celebrities that they're not a one-trick pony either, as Toto n Dot also carry Gallucci, high-end shoes from Italy, Molo clothing from Denmark and Clarys shoes from Spain.

Toto n Dot isn't the only Winnipeg shop represented in Hollywood this weekend. Chocolatier Constance Popp is also in town handing out miniature Oscar statuettes made of chocolate.

While she's hoping to pass out as many bags to the rich and famous as possible, she admits she's hoping to rub shoulders with actress Natalie Portman, too.

"I think she's fantastic and she's pregnant. We should give her a pair of shoes for her unborn child," she said.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 27, 2011 A9

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