Disobedience, a Chennai-based label, has cruelty-free footwear with quirky heels

How do you want your heels? At Disobedience, they prefer it quirky — in metal, and engraved wooden, and within the form of spheres, alphabet, curves… Anita Soundar, the founding father of the Chennai-based footwear label, needs to rewrite the principles of favor. Luxurious for her goes past leather-based. Her focus is on vegan, cruelty-free footwear. “We select upcyled, sustainable, earth-friendly materials,” she says as we stroll round her unit in Ambattur Industrial Property.

There are footwear, in myriad colors, shapes, and sizes strewn round for high quality examine. Those which have handed the check are neatly packaged and organized on cabinets. A few of these have been tomatoes and bananas of their previous life. “I work with pure fibres,” she says holding up a pair of trainers which might be product of banana leather-based and hand-spun kala cotton. Anita additionally makes use of linen, hemp, cellulose sheets product of wooden pulp, and plastic like meals wrappers, chips packet which have been upcycled. She works with NGOs like Khamir in Kutch and Vidyasagar Chennai’s weaving division the place autistic kids weave cotton cloth.

A chemical engineer, who additionally labored with environmental tasks, Anita initially took up her father’s microparticle engineering enterprise. After round eight years she felt the necessity to begin one thing from scratch. “So I went to Italy to do an Eat, Pray, Love type of factor however ended up becoming a member of a course at Arsutoria in Milan. I studied purses. It was troublesome initially as all of the individuals who studied with me have been vogue graduates. I didn’t even know the right way to do cuts,” she laughs. However on the finish of 4 months, her venture was chosen for a vogue present.

Anita realised that purses will not be difficult sufficient. “It’s not a fitted design. So I began finding out footwear in CFTI (Central Footwear Coaching Institute) Chennai after which went to NIFT, and after that did a course in Holland, Italy, the UK,” she provides. Whereas in Holland it’s all about wearability and the right way to make footwear with much less waste, in Italy it’s about model, she says. Quickly, inventive concepts began flooding in. Even one thing so simple as a leaf would encourage her. “I used to be instructed persons are born with creativity, it may possibly’t be taught. However I realised design is a course of, you may really work on it,” she says.

After 5 years of R&D, Disobedience formally launched on March 5, 2025. She purchased the primary set of machines to fabricate footwear in 2020. Then, she determined to include textile into her creations. Exclusivity was what Anita needed, fairly than simply shopping for cloth off cabinets. Turning to luxurious manufacturers like Prada and Celine for inspiration, she seen that lots of them begin from scratch and create their very own textiles. “I used to be additionally considering of objective pushed manufacturers like Toms. So, I stared working with weavers in Assam. On the similar time, I additionally learnt weaving at Shuttles and Needle, Chennai. Following which, she purchased an old style loom on which she creates a few of her personal cloth, whereas additionally working with weavers. In 2021 she made a footwear with linen.

The footwear from Disobedience span the entire spectrum from edgy and stylish, to delicate and informal. There are denim boots comprised of recycled yarn, pumps in inexperienced, black, pink, derby footwear with heels… “I’ve launched 50 kinds,” she says. The footwear additionally employs the works of quite a few artisans. For instance, there are fairly ceramic bows on a few of the flats. These are made by ceramic artists in Chennai. Karigars from Jaipur labored on the engravings on picket heels (product of reclaimed teakwood).

Since Anita is meticulous in her method, she did a carpentry course at Studio Litter, Chennai, to raised perceive the method. “Carpenters have been intimidated after I requested them to make heels. So I learnt the right way to create them and made prototypes after which gave it to them, they have been in a position to replicate these,” she explains.

The footwear — made to order — take round 45 hours to make. They arrive packed in picket packing containers, with considerate little touches within the type of further heel ideas, shoe cleaner, and shoehorn. “I at all times felt once you purchase a biscuit tin field, the field stays even after the biscuits are gone. If I give a cardboard field, it’ll be discarded. I needed to offer one thing folks might repurpose,” provides Anita, who’s now obsessive about a number of items of stable metal springs. These could quickly translate into heels, she smiles. 

Costs begin at ₹15,000. For particulars, log onto thedisobedience.com