If you are an assistant stylist or an intern, at some point in your career you are going to be asked to tape shoes. I know I have been asked time or two (in fact you can see me in that picture taping up a pair of shoes)! The question is, will you know what do when your key stylist asks you tape up shoes? Do you even know why you are being asked to tape shoes? If you don’t, this blog post is my little gift to you.
Taping shoes is super important. If you are borrowing shoes from a store, designer, or showroom you don’t want to mess them up. Shoes are really easy to mess up and if you mess them up, that means you (or your key stylist) just bought them. Not good. So adding some tape to the soles of the shoes keeps them protected, it also keeps your bank account full.
Now you see why you need to do it but the question remains … how? Well, here is how I do it, enjoy:
1.) If there is a price tag on the bottom of the shoe I cover that with one layer scotch tape. That ensures that the price does doesn’t get ripped off or damaged.
2.) Apply layers of masking tape to the soles of the shoes. About 5 layers will do it. Use long stripes of tape to cover the bottoms and don’t worry if tapes hangs off the edge because it will.
3.) After you have applied the layers of tape, you will need to trim off the excess. Just grab a pair of scissors and start cutting. Don’t trip out if you can still see a little bit of tape because that can be worked out in photoshop later.
4.) The last thing I like to do is the heel. Just take a tiny piece (or two) of black tape to cover that part of the shoe.
That’s it. It’s not rocket science. It’s not the most fun thing in the world but it is a necessary task. Happy taping!!!
Over and out,
SOS Assistant
