One of my favorite discoveries last weekend was designer Melinda Whisler, co-owner of Rubaiyat Shoes with her husband Louis. They were apparently one of the earliest to import European shoes and have been hand making them for over forty years.
Their studio is some 200 square feet that they share with a couple of cats and an old sewing machine, you know, the kind that goes forward and backward only without any of the modern digital bells and whistles. It is on this very machine that Melinda performs her magic. When I asked about her studio, which is nestled over the bridge in Marin (Northern California), she said with a nervous laugh, “we have to watch the tides sometimes.” I am imagining a studio that is set up against the ocean that sometimes gets an overflow of water from time to time.
I didn’t meet them at any of their three stores, nor in their studio. They set up shop at a fashion expo with dozens of other booths which offered clothing, jewelry, accessories, shoes and textiles from the 1850s to the 1980s.
I’m a sucker for shoes, so it was hard not to be pulled into her fairly spacious booth which had a number of brightly colored shoes set on two consecutive shelves. Because the theme was vintage, I assumed that the shoes were old and second hand, but what I learned was that each shoe was completely customized depending on what you want. Literally. Take a look at their process…..all done on that old fashioned sewing machine, set admist a couple of homey cats who apparently lay about on the umpteen choices of leather – ostrich, gator, python, you name it. You want it, she’ll do it.
Naturally, as a shoe addict, I had to know what such a lengthy and personalized process would cost for a single pair of shoes. Obviously, as you’d expect, it depends on whether you choose ostrich or tiju lizard (more expensive) versus a standard leather. Either way, she has a wide range of colors to choose from, roughly 30 in total, give or take a few depending on the style. Here’s the really cool thing. You can actually choose not just the texture, leather and color, but the size of the heal. Who else does that? I fall in love with shoes all the time and they have 4 inch skinny heals on them and so I have to walk away. I DO wear heals, but enuf already. Why not give me a sexy, interesting, colorful, unique shoe design with a normal sized shoe that I can wear comfortably all night? Have a look at some of the shoes she had on display that I shot on-site:
Below is one of my favorites: (figures I’d choose something that was on the high (high end). Try $1400-1800. (gorgeous antique stained leather soles too I might add :-)
While many handmade shoe stores can charge in the $500-2,000 range, Melinda likes to keep their prices reasonable, starting as low as $280 or so and going up to the $800 range. You can get an idea of what they offer from their gallery page. Below is a video clip I shot in her booth – she explains how they got started, why they do this (yes, they both love shoes and she LOVES color) and how the customization process works. Have a listen:
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
