Lim working on a bead embroidery design to be made into a colourful ‘kasut manek’ with assorted beads. — Pictures courtesy of Lim Tian Seng
PETALING JAYA, Feb 18 — Beaded shoemaker Lim Tian Seng would usually get 70 Nyonya shoes requests a month from customers before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nyonya shoes or kasut manek are a cultural pride of the Baba Nyonya community — especially for the women (known as Nyonyas) who would wear the shoes with their kebaya outfit.
Lim, 61, who learnt the art from his late mother at a young age then decided to open a shop in the year 2000 called TS Lim Trading located in Melaka’s Jalan Tokong.
But since the Covid-19 pandemic has begun, his orders have drastically reduced to only about three to five a month due to border restrictions.
Speaking to Malay Mail, the Melaka-born shoemaker who’s been in the business for almost 20 years said that most of his customers are usually from Singapore and Japan.
Sometimes, he would get customised orders from the local Baba Nyonya community to make the beaded shoes for special occasions like weddings.
“The demand among international tourists is high as tourists would either look me up on Google or visit my shop before the pandemic.
“My workmanship and kasut manek designs are unique too — there isn’t anyone who has the same designs as mine.
“But since the Covid-19, I’ve only sold two or three pairs of shoes in a month.”
He attributed this to the many lockdowns the nation had to bear and that included having his business crippled with his shop not allowed to operate for about 18 months and having restricted borders.
A display of a variety of ‘kasut manek’ in Lim’s humble shop in Malacca.
But instead of feeling down, he and his wife used his time under lockdown making new shoe designs at home to keep themselves occupied.
“We didn’t just want our business to fade away in the name of Covid-19 so we used our time coming up with designs rather than just sit at home and watch the television.
“Customers from Singapore also requested online orders from us during the early stages of the lockdown — maybe about two or three orders — and that helped keep us afloat.”
Asked about the tediousness of making the beaded shoes, Lim said that different beads are used such as fine beads, normal beads or manek potong (faceted glass beads) depending on the customers.
“While the shoes with manik potong beads are more sophisticated and more sought after by international tourists, the workmanship is a tedious process and takes two months to complete making a pair of shoes.
“With my wife helping me to make the shoes, the price for a pair of shoes using manek potong beads takes about two months to complete and is priced at a minimum of RM2,800.
“Shoes with normal beads are priced at a minimum of RM300 to RM450 while shoes with finer beads are priced from RM 780 to RM1450.”
Hopes borders to be reopened so that more can support him
Lim, who used to get loyal customers overseas, hopes for borders to be open so that tourists are able to visit his shop and buy his craft again.
But the 61-year-old also has other plans in mind — to take his business at a slower pace — and to do what he and his wife love to do — travel.
“It’s a very meticulous job and it’s not a job that one can’t just learn in a short period of time as it requires a lot of patience and neat handiwork.
“Not just that, one needs to be really good with the designs and handiwork for customers to keep buying from you and to continuously come up with newer designs.
“Plus, I’m getting older and I just want to take things at a lighter pace without having to worry about overwhelming orders.”
Having learnt the art from a young age, he said that he is used to segregating beads according to colours and doing basic bead embroidery to be made as shoes.
The sixth out of 10 children, he said he has grown accustomed to the world of stitching and then refining it as he grew older.
“I used to post a lot of my designs on Facebook but that didn’t do well as many would copy my designs and sell it elsewhere.
“Some of my ex-workers who worked with me forged my designs and that is why I only keep three of my most loyal workers with me.
“Business is hard — but I do hope to retain my workers and get more international orders to sustain my business.”
He added most customers who frequented his shop said that the pricing was reasonable due to the intricate handiwork.
“Apart from that, I do try to keep the Nyonya heritage alive by promoting the shoes at the Baba Nyonya museum or at the Baba Nyonya conventions.
“It’s what I can do to preserve this dying heritage and to hope for more to support me,” he said.