When comfort meets style

For Serene Gandhi, a shoe is much more than an accessory. The 27-year-old designer, who is the creative mind behind Cara Pyramids, believes that a shoe can make or mar a beautiful outfit.

Serene Gandhi

Sought after by fashion designers such as Nachiket Barve and Surily Goel for their ramp shows, Gandhi's bespoke shoe service will now find its space on the website www.carapyramids.com. The designer, who creates a wider variety of designs including peep toes, stilettos, wedges and ballerinas, talks about her latest collection and more:

A shoe designed by Serene Gandhi

Q. What's your latest collection all about?
A. We're making a maharaja wedding collection. It's inspired by traditional Indian jewellery, which was used extensively in the bygone era. We are using a lot of gold and emerald in this collection. For patrons, the experience will be synonymous to that of wearing a piece of jewellery on your foot.

Q. What is more important for you when it comes to a shoe the comfort factor or the aesthetic quality?
A. I wanted to become a shoe designer and make creations where customers don't have to pick between quality and the aesthetic factor while buying a shoe. A very renowned shoemaker once said, ‘If you want a shoe to be aesthetically beautiful, it has to be uncomfortable.' I want to change that thought. every time I've bought a peep-toe, it has ended up hurting me. With my brand, I've just changed a few technicalities here and there, and I've fixed that problem. Why choose when you can have both?

Q. You don't use leather in your creations. Is there any particular reason for this?
A. I'm a very passionate person and I love the people I work with. I don't want my staff to work with harmful chemicals, which is usually the case when you use leather. Also, I love animals, so I'm not a big fan of leather. Thanks to the advent of technology, you no longer need to rely on leather to offer durability in shoes. Other materials such as vegan microfiber give you the same kind of durability.

Q. What's the most challenging design that you have ever created?
A. A client of mine had a modern Cleopatra look in mind. So I had to think really hard, as I didn't want to give a cliche, gold design. So I thought of giving the shoe shades of gold and made the cuts bold and contemporary. I put each and every piece on the tracing paper, which was then embroidered by the kaarigar. It took us two-three weeks to get the design right.