The fabulous life of Edgardo Osorio

For as long as he can remember, Edgardo Osorio has been obsessed with the idea of lucky charms. “The pineapple became a motif that I started seeing everywhere and started collecting—cufflinks, lamps, glasses, little porcelain and crystal versions. People around me started giving me items with pineapples on them, too. It just became my motif. Pineapples and palms,” he laughs.

It made absolute sense, then, to have the pineapple as the logo for his brand, Aquazzura. “In many cultures, the pineapple is a symbol of wealth and fortune, of fertility and hospitality. I’m a big believer in energy, and to have that at the sole of your foot...it’s a lucky charm—spreading positivity from the bottom to the top of your being.” 

Osorio and I are chatting over drinks (matcha latte for him, Americano for me) at the Taj Mahal Hotel’s iconic Sea Lounge, on his flying visit to Mumbai. The Cartagena-born designer landed the previous night from Delhi, where he opened the country’s first Aquazzura store, a vibrant, jewel-box of a space at The Chanakya designed by Marie Anne-Oudejans, and is off to Riyadh, Alula (“I am so excited, I hear it is incredible”), Kuwait, Bahrain, and Dubai, expanding Aquazzura’s presence with new retail stores, before flying back to Italy.

But even as his label grows its footprint as well as its offerings (spanning shoes, accessories, home décor, hospitality with a tequila-focused bar in the garden of Hotel De Russie in Rome next spring, eyewear designed and produced in-house, and a capsule collection for men), Osorio’s mission remains the same. “I say this all the time, my job is not to design shoes, but to make people happy. It colours everything I do.” The brand, which was conceptualised on a terrace in Capri in 2011 (Aquazzura means ‘blue waters’ in Italian), is dedicated to the Italian way of living. It is a modern take on dolce vita, an appreciation of life and beauty, a bringing of joy, of fabulousness and of human connection, the Italian way.  

To put it simply, Aquazzura is about living your best life, an axiom that Osorio himself holds close. “My friends thought I was crazy for launching a shoe and accessory brand in the middle of a recession, but it’s especially in hard times that you need something upbeat.” 

He’s a frequent visitor to this side of the globe, and feels a cosmic connection to India, confessing that “Besides Italy, India and Mexico are my two happy places.” He was last in town for the launch of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre in 2023, has a group of close friends across Mumbai, New Delhi, and Jaipur, wore couture Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla for his spectacular wedding at the Jacques Grange-designed Villa Elena (aka the location of the infamous party in the second season of The White Lotus) in Noto last year, and has some exciting local projects up his perfectly cuffed sleeve.

“I moved to Italy at the age of 19 to work for Ferragamo and have lived there now for most of my life, but my biggest privilege is travel.  It informs my taste, my work, my point of view. I really believe that we were made to see the world, to experience the adventure.” He’s spending his Christmas and New Year break back in Colombia, but has trekking in Bhutan, meeting the Dalai Lama, and visiting Uzbekistan high on his bucket list. 

For someone who is dedicated to living a full life, wherever he may be, he is keenly interested in spirituality and longevity. Daily cold plunges, workouts, matcha, feeding his mind and body spiritually through books (currently Autobiography of a Yogi), and podcasts by Michael Singer, Andrew Huberman, and David Sinclair. What can he not do without? The answer comes pat. “The sun, the sea, love, friends, family, coconut water, and music—salsa, house, tribal...if it’s happy, I will dance to it.”