Two straps and a knot: On a shoe trail to the past
Still in vogue: Sirimavo’s silpper style. Pix by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
Slippers fit for a queen, nay for the very first woman Prime Minister in the world!
Handcrafted in leather, to match any colour of osariya (Kandyan saree) that she wore, with the toes peeping out from the two-strap elegant footwear, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, most probably would have slipped on these comfortable slippers with a teeny-weeny wedge-heel before discussions with many a statesman from across the world or making momentous decisions for Sri Lanka.
Tales of footwear have fascinated the world since the fairytale of the handsome Prince finding Cinderella through a sparkling glass-slipper or the hoard of 2,700 glamorous shoes that were found in the wardrobe of Imelda Marcos of the Philippines.
Having got wind of who crafted Mrs. Bandaranaike’s slippers which she possibly wore to meetings with the then Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri before signing the Sirima-Shastri Pact or at a tete-a-tete with Indira Gandhi; as she posed for photographs with Yugoslav President Marshal Josep Broz Tito or Chinese Leader Mao Zedong, we arrive at a tiny corner shop on the second floor of the Sausiri Building on High Level Road at Nugegoda to seek confirmation.
Seated amidst shelves packed with women’s shoes and slippers in all their variety, is Kameela Nizar, the wife of one of the partners who run Pearlrich, Fazlie Nizar, who willingly allays our curiosity.
“Yes, I have heard this story from my father-in-law I.L.M. Nizar,” smiles Kameela guiding us to the shelf with the slippers that Sirimavo had ordered back in the early 1960s. It would have been soon after she took up the mantle as Prime Minister, having faced the tragedy and trauma of losing husband S.W.R.D. to an assassin’s bullet.
Shoe shopping in a bygone era: Pearlrich store in Pettah
We gaze at the slippers in their varied hues – nine in all, as Kameela says that they have not changed the pattern…….white, black, red, blue, brown, gold, rose-pink, beige and bronze. The slipper has two simple straps with a knot adorning the top where they would fit between the big toe and the second toe.
“The tiny holes along the straps are hand-punched,” she says, explaining that since the time Mrs. Bandaranaike ordered these slippers, Pearlrich has never stopped producing them. With the changing times, the colours have varied, sometimes being bright and at others taking on pastel shades to enamour the young. In keeping with modern trends, Pearlrich has also ventured into metallic tones.
Even now comfort, durability and reasonable pricing are the hallmark of Pearlrich one of the early ladies’ footwear manufacturers in the country, which started off as a family business and remains so to this day.
While Fazlie and Kameela run the shops in Nugegoda and Mount Lavinia, Fazlie’s brothers Fowzil Ameer and Fowzil Nawaz manage the Liberty Plaza outlet and the Pettah one respectively.
Directed by Kameela, we proceed to the bustling heart of Mount Lavinia and coincidentally as we walk into Pearlrich there, a customer is trying on the very slippers modelled on those worn by Sirimavo.
Shoe shopping in a bygone era: Pearlrich store in Pettah
“Yes, I’ll take these,” says the customer as we request her for a photograph, to which she willingly obliges. On holiday in Sri Lanka, she will be taking three pairs, blue, red and black, back home to England when she leaves.
“These fit well and even in my childhood I used to buy my shoes from Pearlrich,” she says.
It is once the brisk sale is done that we chat to Fazlie who recalls the tale told by his father, Mohamed, and eldest brother, Fowzil Hussain, who are both no more.
“Two ladies would come on behalf of Mrs. Bandaranaike in the early 1960s to the very first shop begun by my father way back in 1956 on 1st Cross Street, Pettah,” says Fazlie who was a small boy then. His father had left home and hearth at Galle as a 12-year-old to relocate in Colombo, to help his brother and gradually moved into the shoe-trade. It was truly a family business, because even Fazlie and his brothers spent much time in the Pettah shop, after their lessons at Wesley College, getting paid 10 to 50 cents.
The first time Sirimavo’s aides visited the shop, they brought with them a pair from India – it was an ‘Indian 11’. Sirimavo wanted Pearlrich, “leading people in ladies’ leather shoes” to make similar pairs for her and that’s what their cobblers did, handcrafting the footwear of the then Prime Minister.
The right fit and the slippers will be taken to England by this customer
Smilingly, Fazlie who later went onto the London School of Arts to learn shoe designing — where the likes of Jimmy Choo (a Malaysian fashion designer based in the United Kingdom who co-founded Jimmy Choo Ltd, gaining popularity for handmade women’s shoes) had also learnt the art — says that there were no imports of shoes to Sri Lanka then and Sirimavo was supporting local industry in every way possible.
Fazlie says that their handcrafted shoes were earlier hand-cut but now moving with modern times, they use standard cutters, while keeping the old moulds which are still very popular.
Nothing else needs to be said, for there is proof right before our eyes, as the expatriate from London literally slips into the charming blue pair of slippers of a Prime Minister from a bygone era, priced at Rs. 750.