Best Foot Forward

Today,the trio is a leading name among accessory designers,and they owe much of their success to such significant collaborations with apparel designers. Having already worked with Priyadarshini Rao,Kallol Datta and Rahul Mishra,the recent Winter Festive 2013 edition of Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) had them design footwear for Kumar and Nimish Shah’s label,Shift. Another label to make its presence felt on the LFW runway this season was Veruschka by Payal Kothari,who created the shoes for Pria Kataria Puri’s show. Similarly,Swati Mehrotra,who runs the label Swati Modo,rolled out a collection for designer Zubair Kirmani and the label Geisha Designs at Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week Spring-Summer 2013. Clearly,shoe designers are in demand and the results are showing.

Payal Kothari feels that the need for specially made footwear,as opposed to resorting to the branded variety for a show,stems from the fact that apparel designers now realise the importance of footwear and high precision construction in putting together a design story. “For instance,Pria wanted shoes with a leather tie-up,but with the movement of the models on the ramp,there was a possibility of the tie-up sliding down the leg. To combat that problem,I incorporated thin metal wire into the tie-up that lent support,” Kothari says.

Footwear designer Shruti Kaul Sachdeva,who customised shoes under her label Trishuli to match the neoprene rubber in Namrata Joshipura’s LFW finale collection in March,points out how it took her numerous sittings and detailed notes before she rolled out 35 pairs of shoes in 20 different styles,all perfectly coordinated with each of Joshipura’s outfits. “Gone are the days when designers would let models walk in their regular gold or silver heels on the ramp. Today,it’s about customising the look down to every accessory including footwear,” says Sachdeva,adding that most designers outsource footwear production due to the lack of a shoe manufacturing setup that can make bespoke footwear in limited quantities. At Joshipura’s show,the spiked heels didn’t go unnoticed and soon Trishuli Shoes — now known for their hand embroideries,colour blocking,hand painting and the use of materials like wood,mother of pearl and rich fabrics like khim khab — was roped in by designer Gaurav Gupta for his next show.

Designer Nimish Shah points out that he chose to work with an accessory label as it is a win-win situation for both the parties. “Footwear from a high-street brand tends to be treated like a prop whereas in this case,you have something made just to complete your ensemble. This co-branding benefits both as long as you are on the same wavelength,” he emphasises. On his part,Berry confesses that collaborating with a designer on a show leads to increased awareness about the brand. “While we do get paid for the shoes made for ramp shows,the chunk of our earnings comes from the customised shoes we make for our clients — be it special needs or troussseau packages. The runway then is a great place to show off our experimentation skills,” he says.