Pop art for your feet

Stuti Agarwal

Hand-painted shoes in vivid colours and wow designs are quite the rage among fashionistas.

Legend has it that Cinderella left behind one of her glass shoes and that's how Prince Charming found her. Only today, if you want to dazzle your Prince Charming, all you'll need are a pair of handpainted shoes. A rage across the country and a must-have in every fashionista's shoe cabinet, these assets come in various colours, shapes and designs — all pre-ordered as per your specifications.

Art of the matter
Rohan Arora, who's wowed buyers with his Bollywoodinspired shoes, says, "I prefer to have a theme in my shoes. Thus I have muhawras and posters and dialogues of cult films like Shree 420, Sholay, Deewar, Devdas and Mother India painted on my shoes." However, Rohan takes care that faces of real people are not displayed. "We know where to stop. While making Devdas shoes, we painted Paro on one and Chandramukhi on the other, but changed the faces a bit so that they didn't resemble the actresses who played the roles."

Anis Salim works with abstract patterns, nature and animals. He realized the potential of hand-painted shoes when in 2011 he took 30 pairs to a flea market in Bangalore and sold 26 pairs in five hours. On the other hand, Kartick Kapoor likes to paint his version of pop art on shoes. "I am inspired by Madhubani art among other things," says Kartick, who studied in England before moving back to Kolkata to launch his brand.

Best foot forward

-Wear them with solid colours and let the shoe do the talking
-Do not go overboard with the accessories. A statement shoe is enough to jazz up an outfit
-These shoes deserve better than chipped nails and cracked heels. So get an appointment with the pedicurist before donning the pair
-Don't forget to wear that killer attitude

When it comes to hand-painted shoes, you will be spoilt for choice. Imagine all kinds — converse, boots, pumps, peep toes, ballerinas, kitten heels, stilettos, gladiator flats, Kolhapuris and flip flops — with your favourite motifs. "I sometimes like to paint a story on just the heels and let it be. I prefer to work on handwoven khadi and chicken leg leather shoes. We've got a very good response. We sell almost 50 pairs a month," reveals 28-year-old Rohan, whose shoes are designed by rural artistes, who originally used to paint film posters on walls. "The paint we use, won't come off in a 100 years," explains Rohan.

Anis has trained people who used to draw signboards. "It also results in employment for those who have art in their blood. They create stunning designs using acrylic," says Anis, who works on leather and faux leather. Whenever someone asks him about the longevity of the paint, Anis conducts a little experiment. "I pour water on the

Buyers are growing
shoe and ask them to rub off the paint with all their might. And I'm always the winner. The shoe may get damaged, but the paint won't come off," he adds. Kartick uses a mix of different acrylic-based pigments and paints."I work on synthetic leather as I am against natural leather,"he says, adding that he paints many a pair himself.

These shoes are meant for experimental ladies, and also some daring men.Anis's clientele includes city celebs like Swastika Mukherjee, Koneenica Banerjee, Richa Sharma and Payel Sarkar. His shoes are priced between 2,000 and Rs 3,500. Rohan says that his youngest client is a 15-year-old girl but "recently, a 42-year-old lady walked into my store and bought Raj Kapoor boots as she was a big fan of the legend". His price tag? 2,000 to 15,000. Kartick, who caters to the modern urban youth, says, "Apart from exhibitions and my store, I sell these shoes online. As my shoes are reasonably priced at 1,800, people do not hesitate to order them online."

Each pair takes about three hours to two days to paint,depending on the design and the make. So go ahead, add a dash of art to your feet.

Pop Art is the new black this Spring

Pavli Medvedova

 
 Every magazine has its own way of introducing the trends we should keep our fashionable focus on. I usually can’t really get my head around it and get pretty confused. So I try to stick to one source that gets my inspiration going and then let the magic happen.

 According to Style.com there are 5 main Spring Trends for 2014 we should keep an eye on.

 The one that gets me excited is all about bold art. Spring is the time of the year, when we stop wearing comfortable pieces in black, grey or brown and start thinking about colors, designs, skirts and sunglasses to get us through those warm sunny days.

 We definitely have plenty of artistic designs to look forward to. Designers wanted to be like Picasso and introduced collections with a fine-art spin for the coming season. There was Karl Lagerfeld and his Pantone-streaked dresses at Chanel, Prada introduces designs with images from political street muralists, and Louis Vuitton opened his show with Edie Campbell covered in graffiti.

 I personally can’t wait to get some of the artistic pieces especially knee-length skirts and dresses.

  There is a saying that a trend is not a trend until it’s worn on the street. Will you be wearing this art-inspired trend?

‘Pop Art Prints,’ at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, proves that Pop artists weren’t shallow

• By Elena Goukassian

A Pop art collage of a giant Donald Duck head, an old family photo and lots of power tools — funny, odd, maybe a wry nod to consumerism, but hardly a Rembrandt, right?

“Pop art is much more layered and complex than people think,” says Joann Moser, curator of “Pop Art Prints” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “It serves as the mirror that exaggerates … reflecting the culture we live in back to us in the different way.”

Pop art works are indeed deeper and darker than their bold, flat appearances suggest. The artists, who were at their busiest in the 1960s, were inspired not only by advertising and popular culture, but also by the politically charged events of the era and the media that covered them.

Many Pop artists worked with texts and images taken straight out of newspapers and magazines. Jim Dine, Robert Rauschenberg and James Rosenquist regularly used media clips in their works. Andy Warhol produced a series of monochromatic prints illustrating media coverage of death and disaster. A few of these — screen printed photos of Jackie Kennedy at President Kennedy’s funeral, and police dogs attacking a civil rights protester — are in the exhibition.

Not that the artists themselves were any less bewildered by current events than fans and critics of their works: “Pop artists were commenting on consumer society, while attempting to understand it themselves,” Moser says.

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Eighth and F streets NW; through Aug. 31, free; 202-633-7970. (Gallery Place)

Robert Indiana, "Love," 1967: Robert Indiana originally designed “Love” for a Christmas card in 1965; later, he made screen prints (shown below), sculptures and paintings of the image. Consumer culture spawned the work, which led to actual consumer products: Today, “Love” appears on T-shirts and knickknacks worldwide. “There was always a lot of back and forth between Pop art and advertising,” Moser says. (Morgan Art Foundation/Artists Rights Society)