Lakme Fashion Week - Preview - Rohan Arora

He looks like your regular geek boy, with glasses. The kind when you see in a Rom-com, you know is going to transform into the college stud who will finally walk away with the girl, the basketball trophy, and the million dollar prize money on the random lottery he bought from a creepy friend who was, in fact, trying to cheat him.

And Carrie would approve of him.
Did anyone say shoes???

He designs shoes. Shoes that make you do a double take, and then make you gape. Then you realize that it’s rude to stare, and you find yourself thinking that you are not half as cool as the kind of person that wears the kind of shoes that Rohan Arora designs. But that’s wrong, you see. For the kind of shoes that Rohan Arora designs make people, even your regular college geeks who do NOT walk away with the girl, look cool.

Rohan, a Kolkata based designer, started the label “Rohan Arora” in 2008. Whatever he might say was the reason behind it, I believe that the REAL reason he started designing shoes was because he realized that there was a definite vacuum where great shoes, with an awesome sense of style married to a quirky sense of humor should have been. He knew that many a high end shoe closets were missing the kind of shoes that put an end to all conversation, when their wearer enters a room. Because these shoes command a new string of conversation: about them. About how intricately crafted wooden heels that look so stunning can also be very comfortable. About how sterile modernization can never ever beat the dying art of shoes made by hands.





Some shoes from Rohan's past collections

For this year’s collection, Rohan has designed 16 stunning pairs in a collection titled “Leela”. Irreverently fusing street-style fashion inspirations with vintage charms, he took almost two months to get the perfect look for his unusual creations: wooden heels with delicate Nakashi work on them, adorned with fun trinkets that make your feet do a waltz with joy. Rohan got his skilled artisans to create the timeless Nakashi motifs like peacocks, abstract flowers, butterflies, parrots and fish on the heels, to make his collection timeless.

Despite being created from wood, the blocks and wedges are incredibly tough, being made of mahogany, an extremely durable wood that renders itself well to Nakashi. For the uppers of the shoes, Rohan has used screen printed and block printed corduroy. Sheep skin lining, supposed to be the softest and the best inner lining, is just one of the fine details that make Rohan’s shoes a must-have for every fashionista worth her two pedicured feet.

Tomorrow, on the final day of the Lakme Fashion Week, Rohan will send 16 sets of happy feet down the runway. I can bet that as soon as the show will get over, the conversations will start. After all, who can stop talking about shoes like that! I think I can hear Carrie scream with joy.

A design from "Leela"