Love, passion and flair shoe-in for success
Self-taught shoe designer taps into her passion to build footwear business
Working in luxury retail store sharpened Mathapelo Pitse’s eye for elegance and her natural love and flair for stylish wear. Pitse is the owner of designer shoe label J’adore D’armour, a four-year-old business which started life as a box clothing service called My Style Boxx.
The business was rebranded in 2020.
“It was a business where we were selling curated clothing in a box, I never really thought about shoes... I had an ‘aha’ moment while tidying up my closet. So many people always asked me where I got my shoes from and I would always refer them to the retailers or online shop...
“We also started counting the shoes in my closet, my mom and I, I had almost 300 pairs and I realised how much I love shoes, and that I wanted to go into shoes, and that’s how we converted the clothing store into a shoe brand.”
When she started, she would sell other people’s shoes, but Pitse soon found this unsatisfactory and realised she wanted to design the shoes herself. So she did.
“I do the designing and once the design is complete we do the prototype and then we send it off to the manufacturer, they do their part and send the shoe out and we send it to our customers.”
The business has to reach out to Chinese or
Turkish manufacturers to do the work because there is currently no SA manufacturer who manufactures women’s high heeled shoes, says Pitse.
Her designer heels are made of synthetic leather and she is looking to work with vegan leather in the future. Pitse is actively on the lookout for a local manufacturer.
“I went manufacturer hunting in Durban and Pietermaritzburg because we’re trying to see if we can get local manufactures and local suppliers of leather. We are in communication with a manufacturer who is willing to look at the kind of designs we are making.”
There are two pairs of shoes that are part of the collection that get completed in SA and that is the high heel with beaded artwork and one that is embellished with ostrich feathers; this work is done by a local group of women.
“We do this to pay homage and heritage to our culture in South Africa.”
Pitse is a self-taught shoe designer who attributes her calling to growing up as a creative child, and of course to passion. “I think when you put love in anything you do or you have a genuine interest in it, you kind of pick up the skill along the way, genuinely.”
Pitse’s shoes retail from R2,595 from the CEO range, and her most expensive is R3,995, which is her most avant garde style range, and can be bought via their website, as well as on online stores Takealot and Zando.
Her shoes are also in stock at House of Nala and Africa Rise, both concept stores at The Leonard in Sandton and in Sandton City.
The Boksburgborn, East Rand, beauty says she’s always known she wanted to be an entrepreneur. The name of her business, J’adore D’armour, (which means I love, love) had a few people questioning on social media why a French name for a SA brand.
“I have always believed that anything beautiful stems from love, so when I came up with the name it was based on how I feel about how I put my energy and effort in order to create what is beautiful. And I think for me what is important is to try and make people understand that it’s based on that.”
Pitse went on to further explain that the French name doesn’t mean she now aspires to be French and that when one starts a brand it doesn’t have to have an African name to showcase its Africanness.
“Our African heritage depends on what work we put out there,” she says.