Getting To Know... With Tillotama Shome
Fresh from winning Best Actor for her role as Maya in Shadowbox, alongside the Emerging Curators Choice Award for the film at the UK Asian Film Festival, Tillotama Shome joined us at the Tracey Neuls Marylebone store for a conversation with Tracey Neuls. With more than 25 years in their respective crafts, the two spoke about creativity, fashion, cinema, and naturally, shoes.
After trying on the JAKE Black, DOT Black, and PAM Spectator, Tillotama faced the difficult task of choosing which pair to wear to the UK premiere of Shadowbox at BFI Southbank on Sunday, May 10th. She later appeared for the post-screening Q&A in the PAM Spectators, styled with our SOCKS Fishnet, a long-sleeved sculptural cutout dress by NORBLACK NORWHITE, and silver jewellery by Bhavya Ramesh. Seeing Tillotama celebrated on stage, with our PAMs enjoying a moment in the spotlight alongside her, made the occasion all the more special.
To give you the chance to get to know Tillotama Shome beyond the screen, we asked both Shome and Neuls the same five questions.
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What’s one album you know you’ll never get tired of, and what memories, emotions, or moments in your life does it bring back for you?
Tillotama: A hot-stepping John Travolta, with the brilliance of the Bee Gees, seduced me with Saturday Night Fever. It was the good old days of MTV, when songs became an audiovisual experience and dance steps became, yeh, groovy gravy.
Tracey: Anohni (previously known as Antony and the Johnsons) is so soothing and, at the same time, uplifting. I can feel inspired, fall asleep, or have it on as dinner background music. The Smiths are a band that kept me sane through my teens. I remember one car trip with my dad where suddenly Morrissey began crooning, “Reel Around the Fountain, slap me on the patio, I’ll take it now…” which sparked a discussion about the facts of life. Jeesh.
How do you get yourself into a creative flow state? Do you have rituals or routines that help you switch on creatively, or does inspiration tend to strike more spontaneously?
Tillotama: The creative process is about living well through constant change and conflict. My capacity to live with joy has a direct impact on my capacity to create. The ability to stay curious, not fix things, and remain open to the moment is key. I never underestimate the power of time. Doing something every day for a period of time builds a certain intimacy. With that grounding backdrop of familiarity, embracing change and disrupting the routine with something else creates excitement and growth spurts.
Sweating and being physically active is something I hugely overlooked, and now I’m addicted to it. It’s like my sweat glands are linked to my brain cells.
Tracey: Sometimes it can be difficult. I manage all my production, and hearing “no, no, no” when I begin new ideas doesn’t exactly help with creativity. I often find mental space on weekends, when the business is quieter. I might head to a café I’ve never been to before, listen to unfamiliar music, and that shift helps creativity flow.
The opposite happens when I’m rushing between ateliers in Portugal. I love visiting our component makers. Our Geek rubber sole maker is so warm and open, like a baker crafting each loaf into a sole. Watching the process from raw material to finished sole is amazing, and conversations with knowledgeable suppliers can be hugely inspiring.
I also visited a fella who made everything by hand in wood or cork. Alongside footwear, he created incredible laser-cut wooden Port boxes, from fire trucks to full-on castles. Properly patient and hands-on. That kind of craftsmanship is beyond inspiring.
I work spontaneously. I don’t follow trends or rehash ideas already out there. Inspiration can come from a building texture, pencil shavings, or something shining in the gutter. The heart-shaped toe came simply from looking at the foot. When ideas come from everyday life, they don’t date.
What has been your proudest career moment so far? Looking ahead, what’s one dream or ambition you still hope to achieve in your lifetime?
Tillotama: I daydream all the time about being part of films that cut through man-made geopolitical borders. I have my debut film ‘Monsoon Wedding’ to blame for this dream. I understand it’s rare for a film to cut through borders and walls, but it’s magical when it happens.
Perhaps my proudest career moment was being cast as a young woman raised as a man in Anup Singh’s film Qissa. The gender-bending role was written for an 18- or 19-year-old, and I was 35 when I was cast. In an ageist industry like ours, it was very life-affirming. The part changed my life and the way I look at my creative journey: fluid and open to change.
I would love to play outsiders in different films from different parts of the world and work in a myriad of languages.
Tracey: I am proud to have maintained a 25-year-old business where I have been at the helm of design, making, sales, and creative direction. How many people can say that and have the support of so many incredible women throughout their journey? It is an incredible feat (or feet!). All along, the mantra has been to create quality, individual footwear for people looking for a stylistically original path.
It’s been important to push the boundaries of shoemaking, create footwear outside the fashion realm, and work with sustainability in mind. A timeless piece of footwear is something you grow to love and, hopefully, keep for a very long time.
I’d like to design something outside of footwear: a useful object, a garden, an interior, a restaurant. I am a designer who chose footwear, but I see the possibilities for my creative mind as quite endless. Not a lot of fear in my DNA!
Who or what first inspired you to pursue this path? Is there something you wish you could say to that person, or to your younger self at that moment?
Tillotama: The writings of Daisaku Ikeda deeply inspired me and gave me the courage to believe that, like everyone else, I too was unique and had a story to tell. The idea that an ordinary human being could be part of something extraordinary was transformative to hear at the age of 17, when I first encountered his writings.
Tracey: My grandma used to make quilts, hand-sewing and choosing which pieces of fabric would go together. She also made her own clothes, and through her I saw the possibility of making what I wanted. When I was 19, I discovered that clothing didn’t need to fit into the retail mold I had been used to. Comme des Garçons released a collection of padded, oddly bulbous-shaped body-con pieces. The Japanese movement in general at that time was inspiring because it empowered women to be who they wanted to be, not what someone else told them to be.
Everything I have done has stayed true to my design aesthetic. True passion comes from doing what you want to do. I tell everyone that. Do it!
What’s something people often misunderstand about your craft or industry? And what do you wish more people noticed behind the scenes?
Tillotama: It’s a privilege to tell stories. I have portrayed many working-class women throughout my career, but that does not make me a spokesperson or representative for the working class. Often actors are asked to comment on something they have represented on screen and are misunderstood to be some sort of expert.
In a well-produced film, from “action” to “cut,” the entire crew inhales and exhales in unison, like a many-headed organism bound together by a story. The writing, the hard work of the crew, and the work of an editor deserve far more attention than they receive. The editor, in a way, re-shoots the film. It’s a relationship hidden from the outside world. The perfectly plated dishes are placed on the dining table, but the editor is the one who made sense of the mess in the kitchen.
Tracey: I think footwear is one of the hardest design categories. Unlike a chair or a pepper mill, shoes have to fit a huge variety of shapes and sizes. It’s definitely not one-size-fits-all. There are around 13 different components in every shoe, all coming from different suppliers and specialists. During Covid, if one part of the chain stopped, the whole shoe stopped. How we make shoes at all sometimes feels like a miracle.
I’d love people to notice that our leathers aren’t superficially painted to hide blemishes. Slight imperfections should be celebrated. Most of our leathers are chrome-free or vegetable-tanned, which are incredibly expensive, but we choose them because they’re kinder to the earth.
We’re also a small company and only produce what we need. Once a leather is used up, it’s gone. We never want to overproduce or contribute to landfill, and I can’t see us changing that in the future.
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Shadowbox follows Maya, a mother working multiple jobs in Kolkata, whose family is upended when her ex- soldier husband dealing from PTSD disappears becoming a suspect in a murder investigation.
Shome’s film Shadowbow (Baksho Bondi) is currently on the festival circuit, but you can monitor the UK Asian Film Festival platform for news on any future re-releases or special screenings.
Written by Elena Efthymiou for Tracey Neuls Online.