Beaded shoes - during the Peranakan days, it was a trend for the Nyonyas to wear beaded shoes. Most of them learnt to sew it themselves. They worked with the tiny colourful size beads aka “manek potong”. It required the nyonya to have a lot of patience and dexterity with her fingers in order to complete a pair of kasut manek. Not many people wear beaded shoes nowadays. The only person that I can remember that is fond of the make-to-order beaded shoes is my “fairy godmother” Mary Chee. I am sure a pair of well made beaded shoes matches her elegance.
Some of the semi-finished and finished product on display. It's all custome made! The colors of the beads must give a good match to the theme selected. That includes: flowers, birds, fish, butterfly and "YuanYang".
According to the shoes maker Mr. Tan, the sewing process is tedious, can be strenuous on the eyes and therefore time consuming. The price is typically range from RM 350- RM 1,000 per pair. Therefore the product is commonly sold to a niche market.
Children of different races showing interest on the processes involved in beaded shoes making, from choosing a design, colour of the beads, specified needles, threads and frames. Explanation was given by this multilingual guy - English, Malay and Mandarin, to make sure no one is made disadvantaged by their language comprehension.
The Anak-anak Kota surprised the shoe maker Mr. Tan by making him a gaint signboard for his business. Everyone passing by the road is easily attracted by this eyes catching signboard. Hopefully this will bring more businesses to him and make this industry shine again as in its yesteryears.
