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Tamera Lyndsay’s custom-made shoes have encased the feet of such famous songbirds as Annie Lennox, Joan Jett and Sheryl Crow. From her workshop in Jerome, the master shoe designer creates styles that include sleek mules and slinky sandals as well as kneehigh snap boots. One eye-catching red leather mule, called Devil’s Cin, has horns and a pointed tail that dramatically wraps a slender foot.
Not content to keep her talents to herself, Lyndsay also founded The Shoe College, aka Universite de Chaussures, modeled on the training programs she uses for her own employees. The campus for shoe “U” is the Mingus Arts Center, the former Jerome High School.
“I’m hoping to help the shoe industry return stateside by fostering its growth and educating designers about the actual product they design, by fabricating a prototype,” she says. “It’s something that the design and fashion schools don’t teach anymore.” Lyndsay’s talents and skills emerged from the High Design movement in downtown New York during the 1980s when she produced millinery lines, accessories and jewelry. Her broad-based technical education included an apprenticeship with Bob McLean, a custom boot maker in Sedona.
A few years ago, her original design wrist wallets were tagged to be part of the swag in Grammy Award gift bags. A favorite of rockers and their crews, the soft black leather wallet holds paper currency and credit cards as it masquerades as a fashion accessory. It looks equally cool lashed around a wrist or the handlebars of a Harley-Davidson.
Rebekah Kennedy, owner of the store My Vintage Vixen in Jerome, regularly stocks Lyndsay’s Privé line of handmade shoes in sizes 7, 8 and 9. “All special orders are sent directly to Tamera,” she says. Custom-built boots and shoes require a measuring session at the maker’s workshop, a six-month wait, and a cost starting at $300.
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