Tuesday 30 November 2010

Manolo Blahnik

Is charming, soft-spoken, wonderfully offbeat in his choice of clothing (not everyone can pull off such a colorful plaid suit with striped socks), quite self-deprecating, and uses his hands (a lot) while talking.

Martha Stewart gave him the gloves and he finds her ‘divine and a really beautiful woman’.


I would guess that 300 people, most in fabulous shoes, were in attendance for his talk last night.


He answered the interviewer’s questions, went off on tangents, lost his train of thought, and sketched and painted 4 pairs of shoes while we watched and listened (as every shoe has a back story).

When he ripped up one of his drawings ‘this isn’t very good’, there was an audible gasp in the room!


He names all his shoes.

Meet Charlotte.


Autographed for the Design Museum.


It turns out that Manolo is a voracious reader, gifted in many languages, has a beautiful home in Bath that is threatening to collapse under the weight of his collection (the man has designed 30,000 shoes and had no formal training)!

He doesn’t like holidays or television, can’t get behind the term ‘cool’, abhors the word ‘awesome’, and was shocked when one of his younger fans had never heard of Audrey Hepburn!

He loves Harper’s BAZAAR ‘the best magazine in the entire world, truly’, TNT classics ‘I only watch old movies’, the word 'groovy', size 37 for making his sample shoes out of either plastic or wood, and books, books, books – he keeps an enormous stack near his bed.

Had the privilege of a front row seat to watch this talented designer...lucky me!


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