Custom kicks from a top Indian designer are the latest fashion must-haveBY ALEX PERRY NEW DELHI
You make your own garam masala, eschew cappucinos for chai and think Bollywood dance classes are the height of chic. Now buy the shoes. Come November, Reebok will be releasing its first-ever couture sneaker collection; to design them, it has selected New Delhi's most outlandish couturier, 33-year-old Manish Arora.
Retailing at up to $500 a pair in India (and considerably more in New York), Reebok's Fish Fry range reflects the explosive use of color and kitsch for which Arora is fast becoming known. The most intricate of his 12 designs uses embossed suede, rhinestones and crystals. With only a few hundred of each model available, they are already this season's must-have.
Arora says Reebok chose him partly because India is so au courant. "The country's getting noticed all over the world now, and fashion's part of that," he says. His use of color (which his p.r. nicely describes as "ethno-fluorescence at its best") also comes as a relief in a global fashion scene perennially hung up on blacks, grays and neutral tones—and to a sneaker market that still prioritizes functionality and athletic performance, even though most of us wear sneakers anywhere but the track.
"I'm trying to make people curious again," says Arora. That much seems assured. Just try wearing the shoes shown here.
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