When I was 4, my parents left India, leaving behind everything they know: their language, their culture, and their family, to bring me to the United States in hopes of a better education and a brighter life.
Their courageous decision may be the only reason I’m still here today.
The life that most women in India are able to tolerate would not have been acceptable to me.
I’m a black sheep, even by American standards. In India, I would have earned the wrath of many who value beliefs and traditions that I find intolerable. For fear of my views spreading like a cancer to the other girls in the village, someone may have taken it upon themselves to see that my voice was silenced.
Unfortunately, my story is not unique. It’s the story of many people who have come to this country.
I know that we have terrible blights on our history, and that this country has made mistakes. But, I never lose perspective that my life, my voice, and my hopes may not have survived had I not been lucky enough to immigrate here. America, for all her flaws, likely saved my life. This is why they often say that immigrants make the best patriots.
My gratefulness, doesn’t blind me from the reality that even our remarkable country and culture is not yet a mecca for women. Historically, society has been a patriarchy, but I believe we stand at the crossroads of history. This generation of women will finally shatter this archaic mode of reality.
Women are outpacing men in higher education institutions in every developed country in the world. Female founders are showing investors winning opportunities. Fearless female leaders from Malala Yousafzai to Michelle Obama are inspiring women to know their value and harness their power. Women are listening, marching, and working.
This generation of women will be the most powerful the world has ever seen. We will create a world we seek. The first step in that process isn’t about fixing society, however. The first step starts with the “woman-in-the-mirror”.
When the world stands ready to silence us, enslave us, hurt us, and control us, we cannot resist those forces if we are willing to silence and hurt ourselves. In the name of acceptance, we subject ourselves to treatment we would not tolerate for the ones we love. In our desire to be attractive, we are willing to accept pain.
Beauty is a false prophet. No amount of external changes can ever make one feel worthy or loved. Self-love is the prerequisite to true love. Confidence is the sexiest thing a woman can ever wear.
That is why I chose to launch our shoes with giant dose of positive disruption in our real, raw, sometimes upsetting but ultimately empowering video “Break Through“. Directed by the world renowned Dave Meyers, this fashion film about the suffering of women for beauty is “not for the meek”. It is designed to highlight the ways in beauty is used as means of control, and to demonstrate our ability as women to lift each other up, and own our power.
It is graphic content, and not for the easily offended, because true art is never supposed to be about pleasing everyone. It is making a statement, elevating issues, and provoking discussion, as well as raising funds for Planned Parenthood.
Thesis Couture is about re-imagining the paradigm, re-architecting the product, and moving the industry forward: To a place where products designed for women, are designed with the intent of making them more powerful and productive, not less.
That status quo is no longer acceptable to the women of this world.
We must we elevate our expectations, to elevate our experience.
We must “Break Through“ and take our thrones.
The future will be brighter than the past, because we will build it ourselves.
Let’s be clear, we are not interested in discouraging women from makeup, sexy clothes, or even cosmetic procedures. We want women to shatter the construct that they need to hurt themselves to please others. That status quo is no longer acceptable to the women of this world.
In an age of human spaceflight and artificial intelligence, how it is possible that the shoes that millions of women wear are built on an architecture created almost a century ago? How is it possible that despite the millions of dollars spent to manage and repair damage to women’s feet and ankles, no engineering-driven team has come together to create a solution until now?
After three years in development, my team and I launched Thesis Couture, the world’s first high performance stiletto™. Our mission is empowering women through intelligent design. The Thesis LIFT allows the company’s 4 inch stilettos to feel and function like 3 inch wedges – a true breakthrough in the experience of wearing high heels. Wall Street Journal said Thesis shoes are “Jimmy Choo on the outside, and pure Jetsons on the inside”.
Follow Dolly on Twitter @DollySingh @ThesisCouture
More about Thesis Couture:
The company released a limited edition collectors run of its debut design, the #OlympusOne, the world’s first high performance stiletto, on April 4th, 2017. It is a high-end luxury shoe, hand-crafted in the heart of Italy from fine Italian leathers, and it has already sold out!
Business Insider, did a blind review of our shoes and the writer said they were, “hands-down, the most comfortable high heels ever”.
Fortune Magazine published an exclusive, “How Cognitive Diversity Is Making Comfortable Stilettos a Reality. ”
In response to recent political developments around the efforts to defund #plannedparenthood, we are sharing a private access only fundraiser to benefit Planned Parenthood and “walk the walk” for women’s empowerment.
Please follow the instructions below for details and access:
Go tothesiscouture.com.
Click on the X between California and Italy.
Click enter password under the mail text box.
Enter “KnockKnock” as the password.
Select size and color and add to cart.
6 Click cart to check out and enter bonus code “WALKitBACK” for a complimentary gift and a 10% contribution to PlannedParenthood.
Please feel free to email clients@thesiscouture.com with any questions.
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