shoe stopper....Indian express thursday,november 15!

...Shoe Stopper

Paromita Chakrabarti

Thursday , November 15, 2007 at 12:00:00Updated: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 11:08:25

What do you do when you want to sweep your girlfriend off her feet with a one-of-a-kind kiss-and-make-up? Or preserve an outgrown piece of tweed suit that your loved one had gifted you? Well, if you are well heeled, you can walk up to footwear designer Swati Mehrotra. When one of her customers wanted to woo his girl with a pair of shoes that would have their love story hugging her feet, Mehrotra came up with the perfect solution. She created flat shoes with buckles that showed a couple in embrace. When another customer wanted her help with that old suit, she made him a neat pair of formal shoes out of it. Customised tees and mugs are commonplace, but now 22-year-old Mehrotra is going a step further with her brand Swati Modo, where personal tales are translated into fantastic clogs.
The going has been good for the designer from Bareilly, who recently shifted base to Delhi. Her leather designs found their way to the international footwear exhibition at Garda, Milan, while at home she worked with designers Ashima-Leena for their fashion week collection. But Mehrotra is keener on bespoke work rather than corporate tie-ups. “A collaboration with a big company will probably be more profitable, but it will take away the exclusivity of my products. Besides, I enjoy the challenge of working with diverse mediums as well as diverse people,” she says.
How did she step into footwear designing? “When I was a kid my dad always made sure that I brushed my school shoes every day because a person’s character, he said, was often judged by the shoes they wore. It kind of stayed with me,” she laughs. So after dabbling in painting for a while, she decided to take her feet fetish seriously and signed up for a degree course at the Footwear Design and Development Institute, Noida, at the end of which she set up her studio-cum-workshop at Ghaziabad.
So far, the orders have ranged from funny to outrageous. One customer wanted a shoe made out of an old school bag he was rather attached to while for another she worked with a flat tyre to come up with the perfect piece of sport shoes. There’s always the regular dose of mush — like the couple who wanted their wedding photographs on sandals. “Each customer has a story to tell, so the entire process is like an interactive storyboard,” says Mehrotra, who counts former Miss India Lisa Verma among her clients.
Besides fancy customisation, Mehrotra also makes shoes for people suffering from foot disabilities. “I had a customer whose left foot was size nine, and the right children’s size. He wanted something that would be comfortable but not conspicuous. So, we worked in a way that ensured that the shoes looked just perfect besides being a comfortable fit,” she says.
The price for a pair of Modos is not too forbidding. The basic pair begins at Rs 1,500. “But there is no upper limit because it depends on the customer and what he or she wants,” says Mehrotra. If you can foot the bill, get set for some leg action.