Consider Zvelle’s New Stiletto Design Your Ultimate Good Luck Charm

In the year since Sophie Grégoire Trudeau wore a pair of Zvelle shoes on her official visit to Washington to meet the Obamas (remember them?), the little line out of Toronto has seen its fortunes grow. Designer Elle AyoubZadeh’s staff has doubled in size, and for the person “who dresses from the feet up,” she has introduced the Noor stiletto. “We were offering shoes that were more suitable for work or going out casually,” says AyoubZadeh. “As we built our customer base, we wanted to offer something more.”

The limited-edition Noor is handcrafted at a family-owned factory in Brazil using combinations of suede and satin. But the most charming aspect is its anklet strap inspired by a bracelet AyoubZadeh received from her parents when she was just 13. Recreating those charms proved to be a challenge because they had to be the right size to be impactful. At first, they were too small. “When you wore them on your feet, it was really hard to appreciate them,” she says. The second time, she went a little bit bigger, but “the third time, they turned out perfect.”

AyoubZadeh likes her pieces to have special meaning, and the five charms—an Egyptian cat, a Hamsa hand, an evil eye, a pyramid and an upside down heart—promise good luck in Middle Eastern culture. Fun note: The upside down heart actually means “five” in the Persian alphabet (AyoubZadeh was born in Iran), and five is also her lucky number. “It’s not just for design’s sake,” she says. “There’s a lot of meaning culturally, socially and globally.”

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