For better, for worse

Alex May

The couple - Kerim and Melanie Van Der Looy, married for six years

Dutchman Kerim Van Der Looy, 36, married Melanie, 35, daughter of the founder of Peter Sheppard Footwear, in Florence, Italy, six years ago. They have two daughters, Isabella, 4, and Alessia, 3, and work together in Melanie's family business. Melanie is an executive buyer.
Melanie says "We met at a shoe trade fair in Las Vegas in 1998. I rang my mother that night and told her I had met the man I was going to marry. Kerim and I had a real connection. Shoes are our life. We both come from footwear families and grew up on the smell of leather.
It was hard to maintain a relationship that happened only when the shoe fairs were on.
After 18 months, I couldn't do it any more. I had to put my foot down and make a plan to end this long-distance relationship. Kerim, in his matter-of-fact way, said, 'Well, we have to get married.' He moved to Australia to work with me
in my father's business and then we married in Florence in September 2000.
That first year when we were together in Australia, I thought someone had played a bad joke on me. We struggled as we got to know each other. We worked in a confined space together - it was very intense.
I own about 140 pairs of shoes. A lot have sentimental value, like the first shoes I designed or shoes that I just fell in love with. And Kerim? He owns three pairs of shoes: a black pair, a brown pair and a pair of golf shoes. It kills me."

Kerim says "When I came to live in Australia, we were together 24 hours a day, which was a real struggle. Sometimes I felt like we could never escape from shoes and each other.
Working together in the business was tough at first. I had different views on the buying of the shoes. Being European, I had a real eye for fashion and we used to argue about it. Then I moved to a different role in the company and Melanie took over the buying entirely. It left the arguments behind.
Over the years, we've found ways to get relief from the pressures of working and living together. She has girlfriends, I have golf. At home, we talk and do business but we give each other time apart.
She's outgoing and tough and I like that about her. She's creative. From a drawing on a piece of paper, she can make a team of people create the shoe of her dreams, which we then sell in our shop. She's able to convey things with passion.
At home she's the same: no one is a better mother than Melanie."