This campaign, a labour of love concocted over strong 3-in-1 coffee, aimed to explore stories our fellow #walkinnelly ladies would have. These ladies, selected through a careful curation process brought with them their old pairs of Nelissa Hilmans’. Digging and sifting through the mountain in their and our closets, what stories would your favourite pair of 4 inch heels tell of you?

With this in mind we invited Alia Soraya. Among her long lists of accomplishments, Alia is a fashion professor and educator, Editor-In-Chief of Mulazine, Creative and the curator and founder of Aisle One book club. 

Below is an excerpt of our conversation with her, over of course, a plate of laksam. 

What is your favorite memory with Nelissa Hilman?

So I’ve had Melati since I think 2021, or earlier if I’m not mistaken but this shoe has been with me in every important aspect of my life. One being, when I got engaged, I wore this shoe and when I got  married, my maid of honor / best friend walked down the aisle with me in this shoe. I lecture in this shoe so I would consider it to be my lucky shoe! 

And the best part about this shoe is that I will wear it till it literally gets torn apart, if not like I don’t find any reason to not wear it, even though the sole are sort of off right now and it’s not wearable, I would say because when I get sweaty with my shoes, the sole sort of wear off – but my favourite memory, as far as I remember, will always be in this shoes. So yeah.

What are you most proud of in 2024?

I think the proudest thing I’ve sort of done or started was my bookclub – It’s called Aisle One Library and I started it with my best friend, Pravin. It was just something that was not planned at all, it was sort of the spur of the moment because we’re both readers, but we’re readers that don’t finish our books and want to be held accountable for that so we basically just started a bookclub where everyone sort of could hold each other accountable. But that is really one of the proudest things I could remember from 2024. So it’s just starting my own bookclub.

Last question, what are you most excited about in 2025? 

What I look forward to in 2025, is being a first time aunt, because my sister-in-law is about to give birth, just before Raya, Alhamdulillah, so, big big pivotal moments in my life.  I’m looking forward to that new breath of life in our lives!