Walking with the 'Talking Toe'!

Shoes are the second-best friends to most women, after the diamonds, and this in no way in an exaggeration. They are loved and picked with much diligence by every woman.

The same love for footwear was channeled into making designer footwear by the two sisters from Lucknow, Nazish who is 25 years and 21-year-old Insha, who introduced a trend of new age Kolhapuri fashion footwear named 'Talking Toe'.

Excerpts from an interview:

Tell us about the beginning of the idea of customizing footwear?

We started 'Talking Toe' in the year 2016; my bother has been our inspiration.

He has supported us to take up something like this and pushed us ahead. I wanted to be a teacher first, but then I always had the feeling of being my own boss and I started customizing footwear along with my sister Insha.

We first painted a minion on a shoe and then we made bows and tried to put it on kolhapuri, which looked cute. We came up with the idea of customizing the traditional footwear, we haven't got any kind orders for three months when we started.

Eventually, people started to notice our Instagram page and began to inquire about our collections and started to purchase them.

How does customization work?

When I meet a person the first thing, I observe is their shoes, we thought we need to make something unique and people should love what we do and so we came up with the whole concept of customising Kolhapuri footwear.

You cannot find them in a mall or a store but only through direct contact with us.

What were the struggles initially?

I am from a Muslim family. Many of my relatives have commented negatively about our work whenever we had to travel for an exhibition to showcase our work.

My parents were very supportive at that point of time, they have encouraged us.

In a Muslim family they usually do not allow girls to step out of the house, but in our case, it was totally different; we were allowed to showcase our talent.

What is the process behind making of 'Talking Toe'?

We have started customising Kolapuri Juti's. There was a bride who wanted something that was different and unique for her wedding outfit and so we designed and customised juti's.

We carved 'Badshah's Begum' on it. When we happened to post it on our Instagram page, we got around 250 orders and then we started cutomising jutis for wedding and bridal footwear collection. We get Kolhapuris done from a dealer at wholesale rates.

He makes them only for me as I pay extra for the quality and texture. I am ensured of good quality. We work around 18 hours and each design takes around 20 minutes to complete.

If we work on elaborate designs, it takes around one hour as we need to fix the mirrors and embroidery carefully. I get around 120 orders per day. The basic pair costs around Rs 900 and the jutis cost around Rs 1200 to Rs 3000. We do not take any customisation charge.

Celebrities also wear your customised footwear. Can you share your experience?

I had got a call in the year 2018 from Amritha Singh. I did not believe it at first and I was shocked. She then said, 'I am Sara Ali Khan's mother and I would want to order Kolhapuri from you.'

She ordered around 10 to 12 pairs for herself and Sara. Since then, I got confidence that our work is being recognised. Celebs like Vidya Balan, Sania Mirza, Neha Dupia, Daisy Sha and many others brought footwear from us.

How do you plan to take this business forward?

We are planning to open a website soon (in the month of January next year) and expand the client base.