Dennis and Lynne Comeau have designed shoes for some of the most notable brands throughout the world, including many luxe European brands such as Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Yohji Yamamoto, and American labels such as Betsey Johnson, Carlos Falchi and Bernardo.

As current owners and designers of celebrated Golo Footwear they have had the opportunity to incorporate the aesthetics and philosophy of Golo’s designs of the 1960’s and ‘70s with their own meticulous design skills and unique sense of style. Together they’ve succeeded in propelling the legacy of this iconic brand to new generations with women’s shoe, boot and sandal collections of exceptional quality and influence that continue to capture the independent spirit of Golo’s history. Today, through their design studio in Florence, Italy and Visionaire Design, their studio in Sante Fe, New Mexico, Dennis and Lynne conceive footwear and other luxury items, such as designer watches and jewelry, for European and other discerning labels.

The Comeaus’ journey together began when they met in New York. As a couture fashion buyer for Dickens & Jones in London, Lynne moved to NYC where she became a partner at Chez Aree shoe salon on 57th Street. There she met Dennis who had left his job as a computer programmer to become shoe designer Enzo Angiolini’s assistant and later, Merchandise Manager. Lynne decided to sell her shares of Chez Aree to join Dennis in expanding his Dennis Comeau and Comeaution shoe lines, which had the distinction of being sold to vendors such as Bergdorf Goodman, Fred Segal, Bonwit Teller, Galleries Lafayette, and other prestigious retailers.

In 2001 the Comeaus’ and a business partner acquired the Bernardo label, famed women’s sandal company founded in New York City in 1946, and successfully returned it to the international level of prestige it held in the 1960’s and 1970’s, before selling it in 2011.

Prior to their move to New Mexico in 2007, this savvy duo spent twenty years living in the historic center of Florence, Italy overseeing one of the largest shoe design studios in Europe, while raising their children and enjoying life. Dennis, a former member of several influential “New Wave” bands in the early 80s, and once a semi-pro cyclist in Italy, is a certified sommelier with a specialty in Italian reds - complimenting Lynne’s passion for food and her expertise with traditional Italian dishes. The two continue to travel regularly to the shoe factories in Italy, maintaining the creative ties and influences that have resulted in the stylistic fusion of European sensibilities and American diversity they have uniquely translated into timeless designs.

Golo Footwear is one of the oldest American shoe manufacturers still in operation today. Originally established in Dunmore, Pennsylvania by Eastern European immigrants in 1915 as a manufacturer of ladies slippers, Golo widened its production to include other styles of women’s shoes in the 1930’s, and by the 1940’s was secure as a widely recognized footwear brand.

By the approach of the 1950’s Golo was designing and manufacturing a diverse range of shoes—from casual flats for teenage girls, to high-quality kidskin dress pumps, and had become prominently represented in leading fashion editorials by some of the world’s most eminent photographers, including the captivating shots of Golo pumps by Richard Avedon for Bazaar.

In the following decades the brand pushed the boundaries of fashion with it’s perfect execution of mainstream looks and intuitive foresight of impending trends that ran the spectrum of styles—from avant-garde sandals to pragmatic waterproof rain boots. Golo became known for experimenting with materials not traditionally used in footwear, such as cork, stretch fabrics, Gore-Tex and shearling. They designed and manufactured the first-ever clear Lucite platform wedge sandals in the 1960’s, etched leather sandals made in Italy in the 1970’s, stretch leather shoes, and stocking boots.

Golo has been immortalized hundreds of times over in the pages of magazines such as Vogue, Bazaar, Look, Life, and Mademoiselle by photographers including Bert Stern, Helmut Newton, Hiro, and Arnaud de Rosney.  The brand has been captured on the feet of some of the world’s most influential women of their day, including Cher, Penelope Tree, Verushka, Jean Shrimpton and most notably, Barbra Streisand who wore Golo’s iconic white patent Go-go boot for Vogue in 1965 in photographs taken by Irving Penn.

Some of the brands most outstanding distinctions include the shoe industry’s first African-American shoe designer, Donald Hubbard, who created the line throughout the 1970’s; twenty pairs of Golo shoes, boots and sandals immortalized in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art; and the design and production of footwear for a host of luminaries of the fashion world, including boots for Jacques Tiffeau, father of the American mini-skirt, sandals for Diane Von Furstenberg, and dress pumps for Oleg Cassini.

Today, Golo is owned by designers Dennis & Lynne Comeau whose re-launch of the brand includes the re-issue of some of the most celebrated styles of the 1960’s and 1970’s in daring and inventive new colors and materials.  Their shoes, boots and sandals are designed in the Comeau’s studios in Italy and New Mexico and manufactured in India and Brazil.