Najeeba Hayat is a name to know. She’s the Kuwaiti designer behind Liudmila, a new luxury footwear line that focuses on lower heels (that alone would make any woman fall in love with the shoes). Manufactured in Italy, her debut collection—presented during Milan Fashion Week—emphasizes the line, form, and color that tap into our collective childhood memories. Drawing inspiration from cartoon heroines, her line comprises sugary pastel kitten heels, elevated wooden flats embellished with pom-poms, and satin “Cinderalla” ballerinas.
On the sidelines of the event that celebrated the launch of her collection at AlOthman Boutique, we spoke to the up-and-coming designer about her brand philosophy, the challenges that she faced, and her muses.
NOURIAH AL SHATTI: Tell us about your design process.
NAJEEBA HAYAT: We manufacture our heels at the best factory in Italy, the same factory that creates shoes for many of the major brands, such as Manolo Blahnik, Chanel, and Prada.
For our first collection, we manufactured all of our heels from scratch, meaning that we had to develop all of our own lasts (the plastic mold that’s used to create a shoe) as opposed to taking an existing mold and adding the designs on top. After the lasts were complete, we developed the leathers. All the Nappa and calf leathers that we use were created exclusively for us along with the powdery pastel range of colors.
I might have taken the most expensive way forward, but I wanted my sketches to come to life without compromise and we made it possible.
What were the challenges that you faced?
One of the challenges was that I didn’t speak Italian. It was a big problem because in these small manufacturing towns, hardly any English is spoken. Along the way I picked up the language and ultimately, I learned to communicate with the factory employees and I’ve built a great relationship with them.
Also, there’s a lot of struggle because I’m dealing with a product that is so technical. Take the Leandra shoe, for example; at first my factory refused to make it because the production process necessary to make shoes was not applicable to this specific design. I was desperate to make it work so in the end, we managed to find a suitable process. As a result, the shoe is almost entirely handmade.
