Put your best foot forward with hand-painted shoes

For over the past nine months, our lives were centred around staying at and working from home. Perfect for occasions “A good pair of shoes makes or breaks your look,” says Rohan Arora, footwear designer and founder of his Kolkata-based eponymous label. We now have clients who have spent a good amount of time to pick out everything in the right way, and that’s a better way to buy things in the long run.” The flipside, he adds, “The number of occasions has reduced, so people are buying fewer shoes.” Let’s get formal Lucknow-based Rahul Shastri, founder of brand Tōramally, says there’s been a growing interest in handmade footwear for the past few years, but there are only a handful of shoemakers in the country who are delivering. With the growing awareness among consumers around sustainability, Shastri has started a new offering: Tōramally Green, which features shoes from upcycled leather, reused denim and recycled rubber from discarded tyres. Keeping it casual Another brand that’s making simpler, yet equally stylish, hand-painted shoes is Neha Sahu’s The Haelli, based in Gurugram.