Stepping out: sisters reflect on closing their iconic Sydney shoe store

The iconic Kit and Renata Cignetti.

For the past 60 years, the Cignetti family has been selling women’s shoes on King Street in Sydney’s CBD.

With its small, yet distinctively split design — part street level, part basement — their store has always carried the warm atmosphere of a cozy lounge room. However, as sisters Kit and Renata Cignetti announce their plans to close the shop and explore new adventures, they're beginning to realize that their store represents much more than just a retail space.

Customers have been flooding in, some bereft, some sad but all with stories about the many beautiful pairs of Italian and Spanish shoes they have bought over the years.

“They’re very emotional about our closing,” says Kit. “They are losing the familiarity. Someone came in and said, ‘I always knew when I came here that I could count on you. You always had what I was looking for. It was just what you did’.”

Another customer told them that they were icons. “Everyone’s saying that,” says Kit, laughing.

Renata says they feel guilty for closing down. “We feel like we're letting our customers down a little bit.”

For decades, the pair have dressed mums, secretaries, High Court judges, “everyone”, as Kit puts it.

“We're like the corner store in the city,” she says. “People just come in, they stand on the landing and talk to us for five minutes. They say ‘See you!’ and off they go. Some people might come in and stay for an hour, some people stay even longer. We have had these long conversations while we're selling shoes. We’ve been privileged to have that as a job.”

“We have been fortunate enough to meet so many wonderful women that seem to have one thing in common — that it doesn’t take much to make a woman happy but a pair of shoes!”

A family tradition

A love of selling beautiful shoes runs in the family.

The sisters’ father Renato Cignetti left Rome after World War 2 and moved to Cooma to work on the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric scheme.

Always immaculately dressed, he connected with people in Sydney who imported Italian clothing, and at 21, began selling clothes out of the boot of his car.

With so many Europeans working on the scheme, there was a market for men wanting good quality clothes.

He and their mother Joy opened Cignetti boutique in Cooma in 1962. When the Snowy scheme ended, the couple moved to Canberra and opened a shoe and handbag boutique to cater to the diplomatic corps.

In 1965, the couple opened a second store in a building on the corner of King and Castlereagh. They later moved a few doors up to the spot where the sisters have incredibly worked for the past 34 years.

As kids, they helped their parents unpack boxes and as teenagers, worked in their parents store on Saturday mornings.

Kit left school in Year 11 under the proviso that she get a job. “I got a job straightaway and of course I hated it. I came up to my parents and said ‘Can I come and work for you?’” She’s been in the shop ever since.

Renata finished high school a few years later and wanted to work in the family business but there was no room for her. She got a job in a shoe shop down the road. “It was really good for me because I saw how different companies work.”

For decades they have travelled to Italy twice a year to visit the shoe fairs. They have slightly different tastes but say they’re a good balance. “You can get carried away with what you love,” says Kit, who ribs her sister about who speaks better Italian. It appears to be Kit.

Kit and Renata outside their cosy shop.

Watching the world change

Over the decades, they have intimately watched Sydney change for better or worse.

“There are a lot of high-end stores now, which is lovely — it makes the city look beautiful. But we feel the city lacks those small individual shops, the boutiques that we used to have,” says Renata. “We would love to see smaller boutiques open because then you get different things and people want different things. It’s all the same now.”

Kit agrees that something is missing in the city. “I think that someone hasn’t got it right. It doesn’t need to be all big stores.”

I personally recall spending countless hours lurking at various record and second-hand bookstores across the CBD, as well as chatting with the numerous antique, jewelry, coin, and stamp dealers that used to line Castlereagh street.

With so few independent stores and the dominance of the big chains like Chanel and Zara, downtown Sydney often feels like being in an international airport or any other international city. Subsequently, I rarely shop in town these days.

Even inside small stores, the sisters have noticed the ranges aren’t what they used to be. “Everything's become a little bit more narrow and just not as adventurous,” says Kit. “People are worried that if they get it in bright green it may not sell, so they get it in beige, they get it in white. Do you not feel that when you go into a shop?”

I tell them contemporary journalism feels equally narrow and unadventurous in terms of the stories that get told.

Men shining

But still, there are bright spots.

From their fishbowl, they have had a front seat view of Sydney’s fashion scene. What has shifted? In recent years, they’ve noticed that men are looking more stylish, paying more attention to their tailoring, as well as their hair. They both animatedly discuss a man they recently spotted with a well-shaped beard.

It seems selling beautiful shoes has been a wonderful journey and they have their happy ending — Kit plans to travel around Australia and Renata is heading to Italy for a holiday.

There is a vibrant rapport between the two sisters and they say aside from missing their customers, they are going to miss working with each other.

As we stand surrounded by their dwindling collection of stunning boots, heels and flats, I ask them what it is about the allure of shoes? Why do some women get so obsessed? Why do shoes make some of us so happy?

“It’s a beauty thing,” says Kit. “There’s always something about a shoe that says ‘Oh, gosh, you're so beautiful. I may not have anywhere to wear you but I want you!’”

Cignetti will close late May 2024. I have no vested interest in this incredible store - I’ve just bought shoes there for nearly 30 years.