Happy feet

Brands are passé, quirky is the new cool. Hand painted sneakers that tell a story, demand attention and almost have a personality of their own

If only they had heels. Never mind. Lots of colour, girly and fun. That was the shoe person in me taking over and giving Pallavi a verbal brief after falling for a cheerful red pair of ‘convos’, hand painted with pink blue aliens and multicolored buildings. “I never repeat designs to make sure that each pair is exclusive”, she says as I go through pictures of interestingly quirky pairs that she has already sold. She begins with asking for a list of your likes and dislikes (or if it’s for a special occasion) and insists you leave the rest to her brush to figure out. “The idea of painting shoes first came to me when i couldn’t get checked converse shoes for myself, that worked well and I started painting for friends and friends of friends and soon the word spread”, she goes on as I slip my foot into a bright green shoe and love the way it does wonders to my faded jean.

A Visual Communication graduate, Pallavi Sheth has previously worked with McCann Bangalore and currently also assists her mother who is into designing and wedding trousseau. “Painting is something that i have always been passionate about and can never be taken away from me and this is merely an extension of that passion”, she explains. Her designs are abstract and most often attempt to tell a story or depict the wearer’s personality traits, style vibrant and colourful. Her most memorable pair to date is one which she worked on when a friend wanted to gift something very exclusive to a girl he really liked. “It was a funky looking pair with a lot of animated characters because he told me she liked them.” Bright blue green electric guitars on red converse is what she came up with for another friend who is a huge fan of hard rock.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a new pair; she assures she can jazz up an old one just as well. “I use high quality fabric paints and fabric sketch pens (that do not fade) that I source from the U.S to make sure these shoes are just as low maintenance as a regular pair of sneakers.” The pricing depends on the intricacy of the design and so varies, but starts at Rs 1,500(excluding the shoe cost). Besides shoes she has also worked on a small collection of house products like flower vases, bamboo poles and wall hangings and also does bean bags on request.

For details contact: pallavisheth1887@gmail.com
Phone: 9444180002