From Living Rooms to Workshops: The Dancers Who Built Tango’s Favourite Brands

Almost every great tango brand starts the same way: a dancer, a sore foot or an empty wardrobe, and the thought “I could make this better.”

Here are six founder stories, all taken from interviews, features and the brands’ own pages. Each one tells you something about what you’re actually buying.

DNI Tango: a school, a company and a shop

DNI was founded in 2005 by dancer and choreographer Dana Frígoli with Pablo Villarraza. Argentine magazine Archivos del Sur described it as an integral concept that took shape as a school, a performance company and a clothing store (Archivos del Sur, 2011). Ultimate Tango’s profile of Dana Frígoli and DNI notes that it now sells tango apparel, trainers and men’s and women’s shoes. That’s why DNI’s shoes and dance sneakers come up so often when dancers recommend affordable, light options.

Axis Tango: “Open a shoe store, of course!”

Gaia Banovich discovered Argentine tango in 2004. The shoes, she writes, “mostly left me uninspired, or worse, uncomfortable. So what’s a girl to do? Open a shoe store, of course!” (The Axis Tango Story). Her approach is curation: small-edition collections from family-owned factories in Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Argentina and beyond.

Fulana: flats for a changing tango

Florencia Blanco danced her way around the world, including in an Argentine tango production on Broadway. On Fulana’s About page she writes that “a shoe is much more than an accessory. It becomes part of the body”, and that she saw the tango world changing, along with the women in it. Fulana makes handmade flat tango shoes, boots and ballerinas in Buenos Aires. Read more in dancing tango in flats.

“A shoe is much more than an accessory. It becomes part of the body.”

Florencia Blanco, founder of Fulana, on Fulana’s About page

Tango Imagen: two brothers in the Abasto

Sergio and Adrián Theaux run Tango Imagen from the Abasto, the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Carlos Gardel. In a 2016 interview with Revista El Inconsciente (interview with Sergio and Adrián Theaux, in Spanish), Sergio, an actor and tango singer, explains that it began when people in the shop started asking about tango. They started in 2006. Adrián adds that years earlier they had made sweaters in Mar del Plata, so tango clothing felt like a continuation of their craft.

Lucila Segura: theatrical tailoring from Florence

Professional dancer and choreographer Lucila Segura lived in Florence for three years, where she studied theatrical tailoring between tango classes and shows. She kept making her own stage clothes, then clothes for companies, and finally her own label, she told Perfil in 2024 (Perfil feature on tango entrepreneurs, in Spanish). Her signature is high waists, skirts below the knee and always comfort.

Fabio Shoes: carrying on a legacy for leaders

In the same Perfil feature, Leandro Gómez, who danced for over 25 years in companies, especially with maestro Juan Carlos Copes, explains that he wanted to continue Copes’s legacy in men’s dance shoes. In his account, Copes and Juan Fattomano were the first to design and make tango shoes. More in the leader’s shoe explained.

What these stories teach buyers

Dimitris Bronowski, The Curious Tanguero, often says his goal is “to bring more people to tango and more tango to people.” These founders do the same with leather and fabric. Explore his tango resources for books, courses and community.