Duha Bukadi and Her Towering Dreams

Dive into the world of Tunisian designer and architect, Duha Bukadi. It’s a place where you can rebel against the norm and enjoy pink skies, kittens, and smiles at strangers.

Your footwear brand, Pupchen, rebels against routine – do you also rail against it?
Yes, everyday is different for me. I don’t follow a routine, I forget a lot and I like to improvise. I’m careful, but I also love taking some risks. Most importantly, I have fun! I try to make everything fun.

Take us to the start of your design process, where do you get your initial inspiration from?
It can be from anything in my surroundings or my memories. A discussion I had with someone, or my vivid dreams. I think I also work a lot during my sleep: I choose colours and come up with solutions and concepts as I dream.

Does being an architect influence your shoe design process?
It does. I don’t have any education in fashion, so I always design shoes as I would a building; bearing in mind aesthetics, structure and functionality. We also live in our shoes, don’t we?

Your unique sphere heel is all about standing out from the crowd. Why spheres?
Spheres are fun, free, feminine and mysterious. I also love all things circular: pom poms, lollipops and crystal balls. Plus, we live on a huge sphere.

A Pupchen client is wearing one of your pieces on a day out, what does this day look like?
When I close my eyes to imagine a day like this, I think of pink skies, fun, laughter, good news, long meetings, smiling at strangers, adopting a kitten from the streets, telling another woman that she looks amazing. The idea is to enjoy every aspect of life, to have fun with everything.

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