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As Islamic fashion is becoming a global industry, plenty is happening on the couture front.

The characteristic scent of Arabic perfumed oils linger around the entrance of Selfridges, a high-end Central London department store, where abaya-clad women from the Arabian Peninsula can often be seen searching for their latest luxury item in the Louis Vuitton and Gucci boutiques. Fashion-interested and with money to spend, Gulf Arabs also flock to the iconic British shopping mecca Harrods, which was bought by the Qatari royal family in 2010 from Egyptian businessman Mohamed al-Fayed.

Wealthy Middle Eastern consumers have long enjoyed shopping in European fashion capitals, but now Muslim fashion designers are increasingly claiming their own space in the world’s fashion scene.

“Islamic chic” is a fast-growing market. The State of the Global Islamic Economy 2014-2015 report shows that Muslim consumers spent around $266 billion on clothing globally in 2013. And Thomson Reuters, which co-commissioned the study, estimates that figure will increase to about $484 billion by 2019.

AAB IN EAST LONDON

Aab, one of the world’s leading Islamic clothing retailers, opened its first boutique in East London this spring. Complementing its online offering, the physical store opened its doors to a crowd of 2,000 people eagerly awaiting its arrival.

The opening of Aab’s London shop is the first in an international long-term growth strategy that includes expanding to key international fashion and financial hubs in the Middle East, Malaysia and Indonesia over the next three years. “With the success of our first flagship boutique in London, we plan to open more in the UK and overseas due to the demand for our brand,” says Nazmin Alim, creative director of Aab.

“[With] the population of young Muslims rising, they have [significant] spending power as this is the generation that are now independent, working and exposed to media in more ways than one,” Alim adds.

As Islamic fashion is becoming a global industry, plenty is also happening on the couture front. The Islamic Fashion Festival, which started in 2006 in Kuala Lumpur, has been held 17 times to date in cities that include New York, London, Jakarta, Dubai and Singapore. Names like Sydney-based Frida Deguise, Rabia Z and young trend-aware Muslim fashion lovers, dubbed “hijabistas,” are leading a modest fashion revolution with their own brands, garnering hundreds of thousands of followers on social media in the process.

“The new younger generation want to be modern without compromising on their halal lifestyle,” says Salma Chaudhry of The Halal Cosmetics Company, which launched in 2013. “We’re in a society where any and all information is at our fingertips, ladies are chatting and sharing information on social media particularly about topics like beauty and fashion all the time.”

Chaudhry, who will be speaking about her cosmetics range in Saudi Arabia, France and Azerbaijan this year, predicts both the Islamic fashion and beauty industries are on the cusp of something big.

“Muslims of this generation are embracing their identity, and businesses that do not cater to this huge consumer sector will be left behind. I think that halal cosmetics will be as readily available as any other types of beauty products pretty soon. The industry is still in its infancy and the future is about to boom,” she says.

QUIRKY TURBAN HAUTE COUTURE

Iman Aldebe is a Stockholm-based fashion designer who focuses on quirky turban interpretations as an alternative way of wearing the hijab. Raised in a religious Muslim family from Jordan—“I hated my mother’s baggy and shapeless clothes,” she says—Aldebe studied design at high school and started creating dresses for friends’ graduations and weddings at an early age.

DESIGNER IMAN ALDEBE. PHOTO: BINNIAM ESKENDEREach one of her trendy pieces is hand-made. Her collections are sold in exclusive galleries in Sweden, Paris and Dubai. “I’m always at the forefront because I’ve worked with Muslim fashion during a large part of my upbringing. It used to be men designing women’s clothes but now women have taken over,” she says.

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The daughter of a religious leader and politician in Sweden, Aldebe’s groundbreaking quest to modernize Muslim fashion provoked the conservative views of Islamist and right-wing extremists alike. “If you are paving the way for something new, you can count with a certain resistance,” she says.

When one of Aldebe’s female friends attended Polishögskolan (Police College) in Sweden and needed a suitable hijab, Aldebe was commissioned to create the hijab that now forms part of the official Swedish police uniform. The task, complicated by security considerations, resulted in is a sleek, stylish, yet highly functional hijab that seamlessly blends with the required headgear. So far, just one Swedish police officer wears it for work. But Aldebe will soon be creating an official military hijab for the Swedish army (in camouflage), as well as another for women working in pharmacies and hospitals.

CHALLENGING NORMS

Aldebe is currently working on her first Islamic clothing line for both men and women for the Arabian Peninsula, particularly Riyadh and Dubai. Combining Swedish style with long, traditional garments, her norm-breaking collection is all-white for both sexes, challenging the Gulf norm that women should wear black and men white. The white collection aims to strengthen women’s role in society and promote equality. “Sometimes, clothes have a larger impact than politics,” she says.

Making art out of fashion, Aldebe says, has always been a tool for her to try to eliminate prejudices and open up the eyes of the fashion world to other cultures and religious influences. “I want to show the emergence of strong, individualistic, intelligent, independent and driven women with a different background from the Swedish one, and that are Muslim,” she explains. “I’ve wanted to eradicate the image of the oppressed Muslim woman that voluntarily isolates herself from society to live on welfare and produce babies.”

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the second largest consumer of Muslim clothing in the world, spending $22.5 billion in 2013. In first place is Turkey, with $39.3 billion spent on the merchandise in the same year. “When I was asked to change UAE’s traditional outfits, I discovered that the men’s traditional garments have remained the same for centuries. But colored female abayas are now slowly being accepted,” Aldebe says.

“Since I’m not confined to a certain norm, it’s been easier for me to think outside of the box and to create something modern, particularly after the Arab Spring,” she continues. But she has stuck with the wealthy region’s penchant for silk, pearls and Swarovski crystals, which features heavily in her newest designs.

Anas Sillwood, manager of Jordan-based Islamic clothing company Shukr, points out that most women, however, don’t wear haute couture. “The majority of Muslim women wouldn’t wear turbans. But Muslim women are looking for nice evening gowns to wear to special occasions,” he says. “At Shukr, we’re trying to meet some really pressing needs in the Muslim community.”

“Shukr’s sales are highest in the summer months because Muslims can’t find mainstream alternatives. In the winter months, sales slow down because the clothes become more modest in mainstream stores,” says Sillwood.

“Ideally, Muslims have a very balanced approach towards clothing—they want to look presentable and beautiful, but they don’t become obsessed with it, or with the latest fashion,” he adds.

BEYOND “MUSLIM COOL”

The term “Muslim Cool” relating to fashion was coined by ethnologist Leila Karin Österlind in her doctoral thesis on Muslim fashion that has the working title, “Next Year in Dubai Incha Allah. Islamic Fashion and Muslim Cool.” The concept works in two ways: It includes how trendy hijabistas like Instagram star Mariam Moufid and fashion blogger Dina Tokio dress, as well as the way in which Muslim fashion affect mainstream Western brands—for example, H&M’s offering of harem trousers and Moroccan-style kaftans in its collections.

A DESIGN BY JORDAN FASHION HOUSE SHUKR. PHOTO SUPPLIEDÖsterlind points to how this has also infiltrated wider male fashion: The now-infamous hipster beard, the height of its popularity occurring a few years ago and much-spotted in capital cities worldwide, was originally an expression of Muslim Cool. According to Österlind, there are mainly two trends that are taking over the global Muslim fashion scene: tight outfits combined with wraps or turbans and Khaleeji-influenced (Gulf style) abayas, and large, built-up hijabs. “Being a Muslim today is increasingly connected to consumption,” Österlind toldSwedish newspaper DN in April.

While valid as a description of previous trends, both “Muslim Cool” and “Mipsterz” are now dated terms according to Aldebe—as is “Muslim fashion” itself. She says that Islamic-inspired fashions are becoming more and more mainstream.

“The pressure for fashion profiles and celebrities to always be the first to deliver inspiring looks has contributed to an increased acceptance of the unknown. Trends shift so quickly today, so people are happy to get inspired from other cultures and religions,” she says.

Sillwood believes Islamic international fashion companies will emerge to compete in the fashion industry. He says that Turkish companies, while much bigger than Western Islamic clothing companies, are heavily influenced by Turkish fashion, which is not appreciated everywhere, and they are unlikely to become major international brands.

“Overall, the Islamic fashion industry will become more and more similar to the mainstream fashion industry—in terms of presentation and style of clothing. Because of the globalization of Western mono-culture, it is probably Western Islamic clothing companies that have the greatest chance of becoming major international fashion companies,” he says.

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Cowgirl fashion and rodeo lifestyles got off to a rip-roaring start on a recent weekday night at the Miss Rodeo South Dakota competition as the ladies came out dancing to country music.

Mikayla Sich, 22, of Brookings, hit the stage in a white hat and a purple dress and boots for the modeling portion of the competition. It was a standout wardrobe of vibrant colors that was difficult to resist.

In the speech and on-stage question portion of the pageant, Sich spoke in a pleasant South Dakota singsong, citing former Miss Rodeo America Jennifer Smith as an inspiration for her stage career and speaking about her own plans to conquer the world of broadcast journalism.

The four women in the main competition all performed well together and individually at the Belle Fourche Area Community Center on July 2. Two days later, Sich, 22, of Brookings, was selected as the next Miss Rodeo South Dakota Lady in Waiting.

She was crowned by last year’s winner, Kendra Peterson, of Sisseton, who was given a heartfelt sendoff by Miss Rodeo South Dakota President Ted Thompson and National Director Cindy Wilk.

“It’s hard to put into words the bond we have with these girls,” Wilk said.

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Peterson tried to keep things short, saying that “if you give a rodeo queen a mic, she’ll keep talking.”

Peterson’s reign will end in December, after she competes at Miss Rodeo America at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. Sich will compete in December.

Sich wasn’t lacking competition: Her fellow contestants, Carrietta Schalesky of Bison, Shamee Merkel of Aberdeen, and Stephanie Gruener of Brandt, all performed admirably.

Schalesky wore a red leather dress with a cowhide design on the skirt and a white hat. Her speech praised the work ethic of South Dakotans and an on-stage question gave her time to speak of her travels in South Africa.

Gruener wore a purple dress with a white hat and spoke of her background in agriculture.

Merkel’s white dress, hat and boots all matched beautifully as she gave an energetic speech about her greatest inspiration, her grandmother. Her on-stage question gave her time to talk about her background in physical therapy.

Each contestant had a chance to speak about what South Dakota meant to them and about their own inspirations, but it was Sich’s speech about how South Dakota is shaped by its weather that won over the crowd.

In the Junior Miss Rodeo South Dakota pageant, Bailey Bosworth of White Lake was crowned by last year’s winner, Martina Loobey of Sturgis.

Bosworth’s gray dress with blue satin ruffles was accentuated by her black boots and hat, and her amiable on-stage presence and speech about South Dakota’s self-reliance won over the crowd.

She was joined in the competition by Victoria Hagg of Rapid City and Tyler Flintz of Aberdeen. Hagg hit the stage in a red satin gown with a black hat while Flintz wore a green satin and lace gown.

The contestants also competed in a horsemanship section on July 3. Wilk said that she looked forward to working with Sich and Bosworth in the future, and said that they’d be excellent role models for future Miss Rodeo South Dakota contestants.

“Their job is to promote the sport of rodeo and to be all around well-rounded girls and good role models,” Wilk said. “And I have faith in them and in all of the girls.”

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Kari Cervilli and Josh Estock met in December 2012 at the Delaware Rock Gym in Bear. She was 23, in her last semester at the University of Delaware studying medical laboratory science and living at home in Newark with her parents. He was 28, working at Wilmington Hospital as a mental health associate and living in Wilmington with his brother, Jason. Josh had been allowed to leave his night shift early that day and decided to go to the rock gym for a few hours of climbing. Kari had been there for a while when he arrived, and when they saw each other, they said hello and exchanged a smile. About an hour later, Kari asked Josh about the Christiana Hospital scrubs he was wearing. She was about to start a college rotation at the hospital and was curious about where he worked. The two began talking and found out that they had a lot in common. They both loved the outdoors, especially kayaking in Lums Pond while looking for turtles and birdwatching. Both felt an instant connection. He asked her to dinner, but she had plans with her mom and said she would call. By the time she did, it was later than she expected. He suggested going to Longwood Gardens and came to pick her up about an hour after the call.

THE FIRST DATE: Christmas was right around the corner, and Longwood was romantically decorated with plants and lights. At the end of the night, Kari confessed she had been in a long-term relationship that was over, but she was having a hard time breaking away and didn’t want anything serious at the moment. Josh said he was fine being friends for the time being but hoped they could have a more meaningful relationship.

THE FIRST KISS: About a week later, Josh invited Kari to his house to watch the animated series “South Park,” a show they both enjoyed. They watched at least seven episodes, she said. A few hours into it, Josh told her he kept having the urge to kiss her, even though he knew he shouldn’t. By then, Kari was starting to realize she had genuine feelings for Josh. She sat there torturing herself about the right thing to do – for 10 minutes. Then they kissed and have dated steadily from that moment on. They were so sure where they were going that she moved in with him after about three months. By the end of 2013, she was expecting a spring or summer proposal.

THE PROPOSAL: On Jan. 10, 2014, the two had decided to spend a long weekend at Josh’s dad’s cabin in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. Josh planned to propose, but he wasn’t sure where or when. He just wanted the moment to be right. That night, they were snuggled up in front of the cabin stove and Kari was feeling so relaxed, at peace and in love that she spontaneously told Josh that this moment right now with him was just so wonderful. Josh got up, walked across the room and retrieved the ring, which was hidden in a magazine rack, and told Kari he wanted to continue to have wonderful moments with her for the rest of their lives. Then he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. His hand was shaking as he put the ring on her finger. She was so shocked she couldn’t speak, and had to work to get the word “yes” out. Then she started crying and laughing while they hugged. They decided to take a little time for themselves to enjoy the moment and went down to Raystown Lake. Josh wanted to show Kari the overlook where he had considered proposing, but so many roads and paths were blocked by icy conditions, they never did. Instead, Josh and Kari walked around the perimeter of the lake and took several pictures. When they returned to the cabin, Josh sent a group text to Kari’s parents, his parents, his two brothers and his sister-in-law, with a picture of the ring and the message: “Surprise!” Kari found out later that about a month before her dad, a jeweler who had sold his store but continued working there, had been the one to sell Josh the ring and the diamond, and her dad had mounted it himself.

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THE CEREMONY: They married Oct. 4, 2014, outside the Bellevue Mansion at Bellevue State Park in Wilmington. At the time, Kari and Josh lived right across the street, so it was not only a beautiful location, but also convenient. They wanted to get married in the fall, but the fall of 2015 seemed too far away, so they decided to have a short engagement. When Kari went with her mom to tour the mansion, the only date that was available was Oct. 4. Kari accepted immediately accepted and texted Josh: “We are getting married on Oct. 4!” The couple decided to have a tree planting ceremony during their marriage. They obtained a white oak sapling from Josh’s parents’ house, planted it in a large pot in soil from both Josh’s and Kari’s parents’ yard, and watered it during the ceremony. The couple plans to plant this tree at their new home in Townsend.

THE RECEPTION: The reception also was at Bellevue. The old DuPont library was used as the dancing floor, while the Trophy Room was used for tea and coffee. Dinner was in a large tent in the back of the house. Josh is not shy about much, and that includes dancing. As the first song began, he marched out onto the dance floor by himself, throwing his arms about with a smirk on his face, as he tossed his jacket and vest off to the side. He proceeded to break dance in the middle of the floor, do handstands and more. His best man, Jeff Hermansky, joined him and then his brothers. Kari’s maid of honor, Hannah Foley, finally pulled her onto the dance floor. None of it was planned, but it was funny and made great photos.

THE MOST SENTIMENTAL GIFT: At the bridal shower, the bridesmaids gave the couple a personalized picture with the name ESTOCK spelled out with a different picture for each letter, the date of the wedding and the saying, “Love you now, love you still, always have, always will.”

THE HONEYMOON: Josh and Kari visited the British Virgin Island of Dominica for 10 days. They stayed at Manicou River Resort in the north part of the island, where they snorkeled, birdwatched and toured the cities, and then went to Crescent Moon Cabins in the south central part of the island, where they went on several waterfall and mountain hikes. Besides swimming at waterfalls, they really enjoyed the “Bubble Spa,” a shallow hot spring next to the ocean, so the cold and hot water mix, and visitors can see bubbles rising out of the water.

THE FAMILY TREE: The bride is the daughter of Denise and Nick Cervelli of Newark. The groom is the son of June and Jeff Estock.

WHAT’S NEXT: The couple just bought a home in Townsend, where they live with their cats, Ramsey and Siamun. Josh graduated from Salesianum High School in 2002 and the University of Delaware in sociology in 2009. He continues to work at Wilmington Hospital and would like to one day open his own business offering everything from personalized one-on-one training, yoga, mindfulness and meditation, as well as acupuncture and nutritional guidance. Kari, who graduated from Ursuline Academy in 2008 and the University of Delaware in 2013, works as a biochemist at Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. They hope to have kids within the next few years and to one day add a dog to the family.

Each week, Sundaylife highlights a wedding. To have your ceremony considered, you must fill out a questionnaire and send us a photo. You can find the form on www.delawareonline.com on the same page the story is featured on, or you may email Sundaylife@delawareonline.com with “wedding” in the subject line. This is a free service, and we cannot guarantee a specific ceremony will be chosen. Couples also may have their ceremonies appear in Celebrations (324-2781), which runs weekly in Sundaylife.

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“Project Runway” designer Timothy Westbrook decided last year that he wanted to use his fashion skills to benefit child abuse prevention efforts.

As a contestant on Season 12 of the popular and long-running reality TV show, Westbrook figured he could bring his name and talent to a cause that meant a great deal to him personally. The question was where to start.

And the answer, naturally, was Google.

“I typed in ‘child abuse awareness fashion show,’ ” he said, and two results popped up: an agency in Chicago that no longer sponsors a fashion show, and the Yolo County Children’s Alliance, which does.

Last year, in fact, was going to be the alliance’s fifth annual fashion-show fundraiser, and what better way to celebrate that milestone than with a new approach, figured executive director Katie Villegas when she heard about Westbrook’s interest.

For the first four years, the fashion show had featured local elected officials as models. Everyone from school board members to mayors were outfitted by local retailers for the event and the show was a success, year after year.

With Westbrook’s entry last year, the show became Project Prevention, showcasing his designs made entirely of repurposed, recycled materials, worn by a cast of Yolo County teenagers.

The teens were referred by the alliance’s partner agencies throughout the county and last year included everyone from student leaders to foster youths and even a couple of homeless teens. It was a huge hit for everyone involved.

Westbrook arrived in Yolo County with fashions in hand and brought along his stylist partner, Alexis Rose, who is herself a child abuse survivor.

“They were awesome,” Villegas said. “Here are these kids wearing $5,000 dresses … they get their hair and makeup done by a professional stylist and receive training for walking the runway.

“It was really cool to see them shine in the spotlight.”

This year’s event was even better, as not only did Westbrook return, he brought along Season 13 contestant Angela Sum.

The day before the fashion show — held at the West Sacramento City Hall Galleria at the end of April — both designers were on hand to meet their models and fit them in their designs before Westbrook instructed them on their catwalk duties.

“It’s awesome working with these kids,” he said during a break in the rehearsal.

“I try to be really goofy,” he said, and he was, using his wacky sense of humor to put the models at ease.

But he also had high expectations for them.

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“It’s a professional situation and they can be treated with respect and you can have high expectations,” he said. “Expectation of greatness is a compliment. And it’s the way I treat professional models.”

For some of these young people, he noted, “this is New York Fashion Week.”

They had not only a team of stylists taking care of their hair and makeup, they were working with a pair of celebrity designers.

It’s a big deal to them, Westbrook noted.

Even though, he added, “we’re such fake celebrities.”

For this year’s fashion show theme, Westbrook chose Cinderella, because it not only represents the idea of fashioning beautiful gowns out of whatever repurposed material can be found — Westbrook’s specialty — but also because the fairy tale represents an indictment of child abuse — in Cinderella’s case, abuse at the hands of her stepsisters and stepmother.

“Child abuse comes in many different colors,” Westbrook noted, whether it’s verbal or physical, or comes from a parent, a sibling or a friend.

One of his showpieces for the event was a gown fashioned from his great-aunt’s wedding dress and worn by Davis resident Sami Esquivias, 17, a student at Woodland Christian School.

Nobody was ever going to wear the dress again, Westbrook said, “and it was just going to be thrown away.”

“But it had so many memories,” he explained, and he snapped it up when his cousin offered it to him.

He used other recycled materials to modernize the dress — as well as to cover a stain it had — and just like that, Esquivias was the belle of the ball.

Joining her on the catwalk were both novice models and those with more experience under their belts.

Woodland resident Lissett Santillan, 16, served as a model for Westbrook last year and returned this year to wear one of Sum’s designs.

Participating last year, she said, built up her confidence.

“I’m kind of a shy person,” she explained.

Now she wants to do even more modeling.

Carmen Moreno, a student at River City High School in West Sacramento, already had done some modeling herself — she was featured in a recent edition of Quinceañera magazine — but this was her first time in the Children’s Alliance show. She ended up wearing a dramatic black Westbrook gown.

Westbrook and Sum, meanwhile, enjoyed working with their young models.

“They’re really nice girls,” Sum said. “I’m having fun with them.”

It wasn’t just girls, though — Westbrook had two young men among his models, as well as West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon in a return appearance on the catwalk.

Before the show got underway — hours after the models had arrived for hair and makeup and were fitted in their designs — Westbrook rallied them in the upstairs City Council chambers, gathering them all for a last-second huddle.

“We’ve all come together for an awesome cause and it’s really important to this community,” he told them.

“You all look so great,” he added. “Get what you want out of this. This is your show, and you’re all sparkling. Just trust yourself and have a really good time.”

They did. As, apparently, did their audience — all told, the event raised more than $45,000 for the Children’s Alliance, thanks to ticket sales, a silent auction and Westbrook’s offer to sell many of the pieces he was showing that evening and donate a portion of the proceeds back to the fundraiser.

He’s already looking ahead to next year’s event, too. Westbrook said he reached out to a number of other “Project Runway” veterans who expressed interest in participating this year but weren’t able to work out the timing.

One of them, Season 12 runner-up Alexandria von Bromssen, had planned to participate but had to cancel at the last minute. Westbrook expects to have more designers on board for Project Prevention 2016.

And that’s good news for Yolo County’s most vulnerable children. As the primary child abuse prevention agency for the county, the Children’s Alliance has numerous programs aimed at preventing child abuse and neglect, including Step by Step, an intensive home-visitation program aimed at families at high risk, and Baby Steps, a shaken-baby prevention program.

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Before reinventing the high heel, Dolly Singh was a recruiter who brought thousands of engineers to places such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is building rockets in Los Angeles. At SpaceX, Singh, 36, wore heels every day. Even though she loved pitching people on SpaceX, she started to dread taking recruits on tours of its 550,000-square-foot rocket factory. “Once you hit 30, your body changes,” she says. “I had liked high heels since I was 17 but was starting to despise them.”

Next she did a stint at Oculus VR, a startup making a virtual-reality visor. Singh didn’t have to walk as much, but she kept thinking about heels. While at Oculus, she enrolled in the Founder Institute, a program that helps budding entrepreneurs develop their ideas. In mid-2014, Facebook bought Oculus VR for $2 billion. Singh quit to follow her passion, starting Thesis Couture and hoping to apply science to fashion. She’s not designing high heels as much as engineering them.

In hiring for Thesis, Singh has purposefully ignored people with experience in the shoe industry, instead enlisting an astronaut, a wearable-technology whiz, an orthopedist, and a materials expert. “I remember meeting Dolly for lunch and sketching some things out on napkins,” says Garrett Reisman, an astronaut Singh recruited at SpaceX. He joined Thesis as a consultant last year. “To be honest, it was pretty far afield from my interest and expertise, but once she talked about it as an engineering problem, I was hooked,” he says.

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Singh’s consultants include Hans Koenigsmann, an aerospace engineer and head of mission assurance at SpaceX, and Andy Goldberg, a surgeon who specializes in the reconstruction of feet and ankles. There’s also Amanda Parkes, who has a doctorate in tangible media from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has been at the forefront of the wearable device movement. She serves as chief technology officer at Thesis.

The high heel made its way to the Western fashion scene in the late 1500s as part of a craze for all things Persian. Those early heels were aimed at men and modeled on the riding boots of Persian cavalry. By the mid-1700s, however, they had become a woman’s shoe. Today, American women spend $20 billion annually on high heels, but the shoes haven’t been altered in a meaningful way for decades. “Given how much the rest of the world has evolved, it’s insane that high heels have not changed,” Singh says. “This is a problem that needs to be solved.”

High heels cram toes into a tight pocket, directing excessive amounts of force to the heels. Sarah Jessica Parker, who was famous for wearing them, had to swear off them after her foot rebelled by growing a protective layer of tissue. But most women have long accepted the pain. “My patients come to me and beg me to fix their feet,” says Michele Summers Colon, a podiatrist in El Monte, Calif. She recently started 34 Minute Shoes—a reference to how long women can stand in normal heels without pain—which is also rethinking the heel. “They ask me to operate on them and inject them—anything so that they can keep wearing high heels.”

34 Minute Shoes, Cole Haan, and others have focused on adding extra cushioning or creating a more customized fit around the foot. The Thesis team has zeroed in on the steel shank, a strip of metal a few inches long that’s at the heart of most shoes. In high heels, its purpose is to provide the strength needed for the wearer to stand at an angle. In the 1950s, shoe­makers figured out how to insert the shank into high heels and were able to make more stable products, which in turn gave rise to the stiletto. “Before that there were superskinny high heels, but they were specialty, fetish items,” says Lisa Small, the curator of exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum, which recently ended its Killer Heels exhibit, an historical review. “It’s in the post-World War II period where you start seeing patents for these extruded metal-based stilettos.”

To modernize the shank, Singh turned to Matt Thomas, director of mechanical design at Oculus. Before joining Oculus, Thomas worked on projects that ranged from customizing hot rods to engineering ballistic-grade eyewear for the military. Working as a consultant for Thesis, Thomas designed a shank made out of a plastic resin, instead of metal. The resin combines nylon with fiberglass and unlike the metal shank, doesn’t have uniform properties. It’s stiff in the middle and then has more give in the toe bed and heel to absorb impact—a mix of strength and comfort. “It’s as strong as steel in certain areas but half the weight overall,” Thomas says. “The materials also let us change the distribution load for how the foot sits in the high heel.”

When a woman is walking in high heels, the end of the stiletto jams into the ground and sends a shock up through her heel. Standing still is just as bad, because about 90 percent of the pressure is on the toes. The extra give in the Thesis shank helps spread that load by allowing the foot to sit more naturally in the shoe instead of tilting forward or backward. Around the shank, Thesis puts a rubbery material called thermo­plastic polyurethane, or TPU, which replaces the cardboard that surrounds the shank in most high heels. The company also plans to create rectangular bases for its stiletto heels, in effect doubling the surface area.

Thesis faces immense challenges. Singh is basically the company’s lone full-time employee and has put $240,000 of her own money into the company and raised $500,000 from friends. It has taken months for Singh to collect ideas and craft a prototype. She expects to make 1,500 pairs this year that will cost $925 each. Eventually, Thesis plans to offer different looks—day and evening styles—and to sell the shoes at a range of prices, starting at $350.

Colon of 34 Minute Shoes warns that messing with the shank comes with serious risks. “It’s there for a reason,” she says. “It has to support a lot of weight.” The Brooklyn Museum’s Small says it will be hard to design a comfortable shoe that’s still considered a fashion item. Women, she says, remain willing to put up with an awful lot of pain in the name of fashion. “They give lingerie a run for the money in terms of being a highly sexualized fashion accessory,” she says. “That’s at the heart of why [stilettos] are so popular and persistent and have become the archetypal grown-up women’s shoe.”

Singh acknowledges these obstacles but continues to believe in the power of modern materials. She’s tried to find solace by following a familiar model. “It’s the Elon Musk approach,” she says. “If you make a badass product, everything else will work itself out. You have to have faith in that.”

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