Luvy Amaya Photo by Danny Fulgencio

 

Sign up for our newsletter

* indicates required

Luvy Amaya has a shoe obsession. Before she had kids, she amassed about 500 pairs, buying at least two new pairs of shoes a week, she says. After her daughter Sophia was born five years ago, Amaya’s passion shifted to children’s shoes. Before she knew it, her baby had 20 or 30 pairs of shoes. “I could never find baby shoes that were as fun and playful as the dresses are,” she says. So Amaya, who is a pharmacist for Texas Health Systems, put her love of fashion and footwear to work earlier this year with a line of baby shoes called Luv Choo. The name Luv Choo comes from text message conversations Amaya has with her sister. That’s their way of saying “I love you,” she says. Amaya sought advice and mentorship from Dallas women she knows in the fashion business. She designs the shoes at her dining room table, and she has them made in China. “I really wanted to have them made here, but I would send things out to a hundred people and get nothing back,” she says. “If you send 10 emails to China, you get 10 emails back.” So far, the shoes are available in about 30 boutiques in Texas and elsewhere. They retail for around $40 a pair and also are available at labellaflorachildrensboutique.com. The shoes come in three styles: Beatrice, Bloom and Rose, the latter of which is named for Amaya’s younger daughter. Next, she would like to start a line of toddler shoes as Rose has grown out of the baby shoes. A pharmacist by day and a shoe designer by night, Amaya says she likes using both hemispheres of her brain. The whole family, including Amaya’s husband, Chris, offer their opinions on Amaya’s designs. “It’s just so much fun,” she says. “We do this as a family.”

 

Peruse Amaya’s shoes at lovechoo.com.