1012 Corridor

Cherise Angelle has had a love affair with Jimmy Choos and Manolo Blahniks for quite some time. Now, she’s designing her own luxury footwear.

The 29-year-old Breaux Bridge native is the president of Omelle, the Los Angeles-based shoe design firm that she and a classmate at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising started a little over a year ago. The company has quickly ascended to sensation status in the fashion world.

Her designs have been featured in the pages of Marie Claire, Vogue and Elle; adorned the feet of Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sharon Stone and Kate Moss; and are in the running for a starring role in the next Sex & The City movie. “Sarah Jessica Parker e-mailed us and said she loves the shoes,” Angelle says. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed.”

Even with the market such as it is, Omelle’s sales have climbed 20% over the first season, and the company has already expanded to an international clientele. Women in the United States, Hong Kong, Paris and Saudi Arabia are still able and willing to pay $425 to $1,295 for sandals named Andre and boots named Gena.

Angelle hasn’t always known shoes were her destiny. She attended Catholic schools in Breaux Bridge, graduated from St. Thomas More High School in Lafayette and studied fashion merchandising and business management at LSU.

After college, she moved to L.A., and, with the help of pal Ali Landry, landed a job with a product placement agency. There, she learned the art of getting product appearances in film, television and red-carpet events.

But she longed for home, so she went to work as recruiting and marketing director for a law firm in New Orleans. While there, Angelle became a regular at Victoria’s, an exclusive boutique on Maple Street.

“I feel in love with the shoes and the accessories for the suits I had to wear to work every day,” Angelle says. “I literally woke up one day and realized I wanted to be a shoe designer.”

She studied at the Fashion Institute, and then she and classmate Nicole LaFave got to work on a business plan. Their label, pronounced “Ah-mel,” is derived from scrambling some of the letters of their names. They shipped their first collection in February.

Their designs are forged in the same Italian factory that makes Prada footwear, and are a combination of high art and geometry. They’re shoes that aren’t actually inspired by fashion.

“We pretty much take our inspiration from furniture, architecture, food, culture, art and other things,” Angelle says. “We want to give customers something they’ve never seen in the market before.”

And which one is her favorite? “Honestly,” she says, “I love them all.”