When Paule Tenaillon was head shoe designer at Chloé, she was responsible for designing hundreds of shoes a year. With each design, she had to consider many factors: The Chloé aesthetic, trends, heel height, materials.
But there was one issue she didn’t think much about. “Comfort was never a consideration,” Tenaillon says. “Nobody ever asked me to make a comfortable pair of shoes. But it bothered me, because it’s important to me to wear shoes that are comfortable.”
Now, Tenaillon is on a mission to make the most uncomfortable shoe in the world comfortable. Her shoe label, Nomasei, is releasing a stiletto model for the first time, full of small design tweaks that she believes will make the spiky heel more wearable.
Bringing comfort to a notoriously uncomfortable heel
This week, the brand launches two stiletto designs, the “BeforeSunrise” sandal ($575) and the “Gattaca” pump ($595), which are both inspired by the sleek, minimalist aesthetic of the 1990s, when both of these movies came out. To make the shoe as comfortable as possible, the heel is relatively short at 3 inches high, making it just a smidge taller than a kitten heel. It is placed close to the ball of the foot, creating more stability and balance. The heel also tapers out and there is memory foam padding in the toe box, both of which relieve pressure.
Since the brand launched in 2019, customers had asked for stilettos. This presented Tenaillon with a new challenge, since the thin, pointed heel of a stiletto puts a lot of pressure on the ball of the foot. For months, Tenaillon created prototypes, which she had many women wear-test for comfort. Ultimately, the breakthrough came when she studied the design of tango shoes, which allow the dancer to pivot gracefully, while remaining stable. Inspired by dance shoes, Tenaillon has designed stilettos with a tapered heel that relieve pressure and support balance, along with two two buckled straps that adapt to the wearer’s foot, keeping it firmly in place.
“I lived in Buenos Aires for five years, where I danced a lot,” she says. “Tango shoes are often stilettos, but women wear them to dance all night.”
Leaving A Luxury House
Tenaillon and her cofounder Marine Braquet had spent their lives wanting to work in fashion. And for the most part, all of their dreams came true. They each made their way through some of the most storied Parisian brands. Tenaillon had designed for everyone from Givenchy to Chanel; Braquet, the former footwear designer for Chloé, previously worked for Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior.
But inside the luxury houses, things weren’t so rosy. Tenaillon says that when she started her career in the early 2000s, she was designing two collections of shoes a year. But in the decades that followed, the industry sped up, churning out more and more styles every few months, to keep customers coming back for more. This was also when fast fashion emerged, ripping off runway looks and selling them for a fraction of the price. In response, the luxury brands had to keep one step ahead. Tenaillon was so stressed, she ended up in the hospital from exhaustion. “We were just on a hamster wheel,” Tenaillon says. “Creativity just became poorer and poorer.”
Braquet, who worked on the business side, was also burning out. “I just stopped loving my job,” she says. “But before we gave up on fashion, we decided we would give it one last shot.”
So together, they sketched out a plan to create a shoe label that focused on the things they loved most about luxury shoes: craftsmanship, beauty, careful attention to detail. And they would throw in something else that the high end brands didn’t have: comfort.
Designing Wearable Luxury Shoes
The founders launched Nomasei in 2019, creating a selection of heels and boots that start at around $500. They’ve partnered with an Italian factory that also makes shoes for Hermes, leveraging Baquet’s extensive experience manufacturing shoes for luxury brands. Nomasei sells products online in both Europe and the United States.
But months after opening the business, the pandemic struck and the world went into lockdown. Nobody was interested in pricey designer shoes, so the nascent brand went into hibernation. Eventually, around 2022, people wanted to get out of the house again, clad in beautiful outfits. And after spending years wearing sweatpants and slippers, comfort was an even greater priority.
To Tenaillon, this just reinforced her commitment to comfortable design. She has spent the past five years designing a selection of shoes that stand out aesthetically, but that women can wear all day. And unlikes her previous jobs, Tenaillon now has the freedom to design slowly with a lot of attention to detail. She takes time to review what is on the market, creating pieces that are unique. On the website, each product has elaborate notes from Tenaillon about her approach to the design.
When it comes to comfort, there are many tricks that can make a heel more comfortable. Part of Tenaillon’s strategy has been to create block heels that distribute weight more evenly. Most Nomasei shoes, including the popular Adora and Baghera sandals, have these wide heels. In some, like the Taxi and Frenchkiss, there is also a platform, which makes the heel feel less high. Shoes like Venus are very popular with brides because they go nicely with wedding dresses, while being very walkable.
Besides the heel, Tenaillon believes that customizing the fit of the shoe to the wearer’s heel is important. So most shoes come with many straps whose buckles can be adjusted to fit the ankle and bridge of the foot. And there is memory foam in the heels to provide some cushioning. All of these features have made Nomasei a cult brand, with fans that include Bella Hadid, Kristen Stewart and Nicole Kidman.
Six years after leaving Chloé, Braquet and Tenaillon aren’t looking back. And indeed, they’re now competing with some of the brands they once worked for. But they believe that designing comfortable, well-made shoes sets them apart. “We’re two very different women, with different tastes, and at different phases in life,” says Braquet. “But we both love shoes and expect them to be comfortable. The same is true for our customers.”