Insignia: Hot on heels

Winter brings in Insignia’s exclusive footwear to Lahore.

LAHORE:

Before diamonds edged their way into women’s lives, shoes were the original trustworthy ‘best friend’. Ask any girl you know and she will lament that she just doesn’t have enough shoes. They don’t call an obsession with shoes a ‘fetish’ without good reason you know. A woman in a shoe store is like a child in a candy shop. And after the recent launch of the new very chic shoe haven Insignia, one doubts that shoe fever will abate — particularly with winter being ‘the’ season for fashion and weddings.

“There was a serious gap in the market all these years,” admits Atif Manzoor, the marketing manager at Insignia. “With over 30 years of experience in the shoe industry we are confident that we will fulfill that gap since not even international brands like Charles & Keith are using pure leather for the entire construction of the shoe as we are.”  Given how spacious and fashion boutique like the Insignia stores are and the vast variety of shoes that they are offering, from exciting animal prints to pumps to boots to flats and scintillating heels, the local franchises of the international brands with their extremely limited range cannot compare.

Although the Insignia range is deliciously copious, they too order very limited pairs of shoes realising that women who are fashion conscious have a tendency to shun a design if someone they know also has it. Yet, their gorgeous strappy shoe that embodies colour blocking seems to be the rage in Lahore these days, with fashion glossies making a note of the style as well. The secret to their super trendy designs: PIFD students and workshops abroad that make shoes for Gucci and Alexander McQueen.“Because we are buying and producing abroad, we are bringing in a highly exclusive stock,” said Manzoor, while pointing to a few pairs such as the black pumps with golden dice embellishment that has been produced by the McQueen factory.

One would assume though that with big names come even bigger price tags but the shoes are surprisingly affordable ranging from Rs2,500 to Rs9,000 and are completely crafted from leather (both the insole and outsole) which make them undeniably comfortable. So much so that models Noore Bhatti and Natasha Hussain spoke glowingly of the shoes saying that they have worn them to events where they stood for hours without their feet aching.

The brand also seems to be very committed to keeping up with fashion trends. “People are still demanding gladiators but we are deliberately not designing many, since this trend is phasing out in the international market,” said Manzoor. While the market for fashion has grown phenomenally in the last few years, there was sadly no corresponding effect on fashion’s most important accessory — shoes. (Evidence: the terrible footwear that models would be wearing at fashion weeks). “We are thinking of doing fashion weeks and will surely try to participate in the upcoming bridal week,” promised Manzoor.

Insignia, therefore, comes as a breath of fresh air, at least for us folks sitting next to the ramp who will now get to see exciting shoes on model’s feet.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2011.