Step into spring with Aprajita Toor's handcrafted bloom collection
Aprajita Toor has been designing classic Indian shoes, crafting stories, and creating contemporary fashion through footwear wizardry for over a decade. Her latest collection, Bloom, puts the spring in your step through magical floral artistry in leather while epitomising modish footwear that brings in hand-embroidered luxury with unmatched comfort.
“The collection dives into sepia-tinted memories of a more tactile spring,” she says, adding, “The idea of drifting away into my imagination, dipping into curiosities, and rising to meet with challenges made me configure Bloom into Deu, Eve and Dusk series, to resonate with the cyclical movement of the seasons, and life.”
The 20 handcrafted pieces—each a rendition spangled with delicate flowers and bringing forth 13 hours of handiwork—play up a palette ranging from soothing pastels and cheerful pops to sober blacks. The raven hue brings in a converse spin, to the joyful connotation of Bloom. “We tend to associate ‘bloom’ with colour, gaiety and joy, but the flowers that bloom in the dark are the rarest. And, the Dusk series is all about that resilience,” says Aprajita.
Bloom converses through flowers, which are brought to life using multiple techniques, including the intricate French knot, which adds to the 3D complexion of the stitches in silken threads. The creations are edgy and, elevate her version of Kolhapuris that debuted in 2013 in trailblazing designs, and have walked the ramp several times at fashion weeks since, in India and abroad.
Bloom is a mixed bag. There are slip-ons in flats, peep toe wedges, and block heels, all boasting vibrant threads, cushioned in-soles and shapely heights in a cheerful run of mossy greens, bubble-gum pinks, glossy golds, canary yellows and brooding maroons. “Versatility and comfort form the signature in the brogues in the collection. It is a pair of stylish closet essential that you can team up with a crisp shirt and a pair of pants or a dainty floral dress,” the designer says.
What was her biggest challenge in crafting the collection? “It lay in preserving the skill and effort of every artisan in stitching the shoe—ensuring that the intricate embroidery they shaped dexterously and with care, was not lost as their canvas of expression was footwear. For me, Bloom goes past plain needlework—it is a story woven in thread and fabric,” sums up Aprajita.
Available at aprajitatoor.com