Maplewood Designer Hand-Paints 'Over the Top' Stilettos

Go big or go home—that’s ’s motto for everything: her style, her new business and especially her shoes.

Collier hand-paints and details “mile high,” six-to-eight-inch stilettos with quotes, images, glitter, designs, rhinestones and anything else that takes the shoe “over the top.”

“The more over the top the shoes, the more popular they are,” Collier said.

Collier, who lives in Maplewood, toyed with the idea of embellishing shoes for a while now, but in the last year, she started to notice what she called the “crazy shoe trend:” the taller, the better.

“They’re not just for women of a certain profession anymore, if you catch my drift,” she said.

When shoes got taller, Collier had more room to design on, and her business Studio M Boutique launched. Collier sells her shoes online on a website, a Facebook page and an Etsy shop to people from all walks of life, she said.

Collier’s story is emblematic of young people’s career paths in the post-2008 economic climate. Collier said she fell in love with shoes through osmosis by watching her stepfather, who also works with shoes. She managed the Foot Locker in West County, worked in the shoe department at Nordstrom’s and interned for the Brown Shoe Company before graduating from in 2008.

But when she tried to work with shoes for a living, she said there weren't any options, so she got a job as a graphic designer. Now, with the entrepreneurial tools available online, Collier is throwing herself back into shoe design, trying to “ride this wave as long as I can.”

Collier carries business cards, but the best advertisements are on her feet.

“I wear them,” she said about her custom creations. “I wear them to death. They hold up pretty well. They are made to be worn.”

Much to her boyfriend’s chagrin, Collier keeps abreast of shoe trends by watching the Real Housewives television franchise.

“I feel like they are a good indicator,” she said, defending what she describes as an addiction. The Real Housewives of New York, Atlanta and Beverly Hills all “have the money to buy the good (shoes), and they’re all in fashion hubs.”

Next, Collier is hoping to break into the burlesque and drag markets. She showed her wares at Naughti Gras, an erotic art show, and her designs will be featured in upcoming issues of St. Louis Magazine and DELUX Magazine.

“Shoe design is really my number one passion,” Collier said. “Hopefully the shoes will keep getting taller and craizer, and that way I can, too.”