High-heel fashion success with hand-painted shoes

The inspiration for Mallory Musante's hand-painted shoe business came straight out of the movies. Musante's “wheels started turning” her sophomore year at Bryant University when she watched Hilary Swank's character take a shoemaking class in the chick flick “P.S. I Love You.”

Over the next couple years, Musante enrolled in a similar course, refined the idea from hand-making shoes to hand-painting them and put together a business plan with help from advisers at Bryant. She launched her business, Mallory Musante Shoes, last year, a few months after graduating with a degree in marketing.

“I originally went to Bryant thinking I'd get a corporate job, but once I saw that movie everything changed,” she said. “It's a great combination of my passions. I get to be creative through the design part, but also get to use the business side of me.”

Musante, who grew up in Mystic, Conn., and now lives in Providence, paints each shoe freehand. The process involves removing the paint from shoes she purchases from an overseas manufacturer, applying her design, then adding a protective top coat.

Her shoes come in two styles: A 4-inch platform pump with rounded toe and a 2 3/4-inch kitten heel with pointed toe.

Designs range from bold (you can't miss the large mustard-yellow tribal-inspired triangle pattern on the Maya shoe) to understated (you have to look closely to see the intricate gold and white marbled paint on the Sydney design). Colorful, geometric shapes are a recurring theme in her limited-edition designs.

“I try to make them unique enough that you're not going to find them anywhere else,” Musante said. “But I also want you to be able to wear my shoes for multiple occasions. I want them to translate very easily from the office, to a date or a night out with girlfriends.”

Musante also does custom work, most commonly for weddings. Popular designs include a lace pattern to match a gown and blue shoes for a bride's “something blue.”

She recently opened a pop-up shop —a store open for a limited time, such as a few weeks or months—on Federal Hill to test the feasibility of a permanent storefront and interact face-to-face with customers. Musante also sells online (mallorymusanteshoes.com), in a few local boutiques (including Modern Love in Providence) and at fashion events such as trunk shows and StyleWeek Providence.

“This [the pop-up shop] is a good way to test whether Providence is the right place for me to open a shop or if I should go somewhere else,” she said. “I thought Federal Hill would be the perfect spot because a lot of people here are super trendy. I see women wearing heels all the time up here.”

Even though Musante is no longer enrolled at Bryant, she says she still has a large support network at the school. Several professors wear her shoes and she continues to meet regularly with her former instructor and adviser Sandra Potter, whom students have nicknamed “the start-up coach.”

Potter says Musante has been “very astute at the way she's put together her business.” As part of an independent study her senior year, she thoroughly researched the shoe market and tested the business's viability.

One of the reasons Musante decided to launch the brand is because women, particularly younger women, like to “express themselves through the way they dress and use fashion.” Another thing that was on her side? Start-up costs were relatively low compared with other types of businesses, such as those that are technology based, Potter said.

“We want our students to be aware that they can make an impact right out of the box,” Potter said. “You don't have to wait until you're 50. With the right idea and the right research, they can help the economy grow now. I think Mallory is a great example of that.”

Mallory Musante Shoes pop-up shop is open daily through Sept. 25 at 372 Atwells Ave., Providence. Shoes range in price from $165 to $250.