Actress Joanne Peh and her nine-year-old daughter, who goes by the nickname Mimi, have collaborated with Singaporean shoe label PrettyFit on a mother-daughter capsule collection. In celebration of the footwear outfitter’s 30th anniversary, the Little Steps, Big Dreams range comprises three shoe styles inspired by Mimi’s footwear ambitions. “I introduced process art to my kids from a young age to let them experiment with different art supplies and to make things that they like,” shared the 41-year-old in an email interview with CNA Lifestyle.
The actress also has a seven-year-old son with actor Qi Yuwu. “At the age of four, Mimi was very into princesses and costumes, so I put out aluminium foil and ribbons to let her make her own shoes,” recalled Joanne. The striking Celestial ballet flats are a nod to ‘shoes’ made from aluminium foil and red ribbon from that phase.
“On another occasion, she made another pair of heels by strapping building blocks as the ‘heel’ to a cardboard cut according to the size of her feet and that really impressed me. “She told me that she wants to be a shoe designer so when PrettyFit wanted me to do a mother-daughter collection, I thought it ’ d be a wonderful opportunity for my daughter and I to work on it together so that I can help fulfil Mimi ’ s dream of becoming a shoe designer.” During the creative process that involved deciding on the styles and shapes of the shoes to nailing down materials, colours and accessories, Joanne discovered a side to Mimi that she hadn't yet seen.
“One thing I learnt about my daughter during this process is that she is very decisive and knows exactly what she likes and doesn’t like.” A cat lover, Mimi wanted to incorporate cats into the collection. “We love cats, but we don ’ t have a real cat at home.
We have eight toy cats though,” joked Joanne. “We wanted to incorporate our favourite animal into one of our designs. We weren ’ t sure how to do it at first, but after a few rounds of experimentation, we decided to put the cat face on the Misty Sandals.
” And speaking of favourites, the Starlit sneakers are inspired by Mimi ’ s favourite pair of boots. “She loves them so much that she still wears them even though her feet have outgrown them.” Exactly where did Mimi’s creativity come from? It has plenty to do with Joanne’s own brand of upbringing.
“Nurturing creativity lies at the core of what I do with my children, as well as in my business, The Dimple Loft.” On her creative learning institution for children, the mother-of-two detailed: “I focus on igniting children’s imagination and storytelling. It isn’t about steering children in a specific direction, but to provide provocations and opportunities for them to explore, translate their ideas and showcase them in a way that gives them a great sense of ownership and empowerment.
” And empowered was just how Mimi felt when she embarked on designing the three-piece shoe collection. The nine-year-old said: “I would not have been able to do it myself. Doing it with my mother made me feel more confident.
” And collaborate the mother and daughter did. “Since it’s a mother-and-daughter collection, the shoes must look good on both adults and children,” Joanne explained. “Mimi had a lot of amazing ideas and part of my role was to help her consolidate and distil them down to something that could be executed.
And of course, since I have to wear the shoes too, I would share my design ideas and improvements with Mimi to reach a consensus.” Joanne hopes that the collection will "give mothers and daughters a chance to dress up and get creative with their styling together”. The PrettyFit x Joanne Peh & Mimi collection comes in both junior and adult sizing and will be available from Aug 28 at PrettyFit stores.
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