THE ART OF FOOTWEAR
Blahnik’s works on display
Manolo Blahnik admits he doesn’t “love” shoes.
It’s a seemingly shocking confession coming from a man who has made a name for himself in the fashion world as one of the most respected footwear designers in the world. Not to mention one of the most prolific.
Today, at the age of 75, Blahnik’s eponymous company churns out four collections of footwear per year — covering the spring, summer, autumn and winter seasons — for women, as well as select accessories and even footwear options for men. All total, the collections are said to include approximately 250 new styles each season.
And Blahnik designs every one of them.
So, if not love, what exactly is it that drives Blahnik’s shoe empire?
“(I’m) not a shoe lover — I am a technician,” he explains succinctly.
Rather than an ardent attraction, Blahnik says it’s the challenge of designing a shoe that is both stunningly beautiful and stylistically intriguing — not to mention wearable — that endears him to his chosen field.
“I like to combine disparate elements and make something fresh and new,” he says of the inspiration for his designs. “It’s never just one thing — I can look out the window and be inspired.”
Perhaps too, it’s the prominence of footwear in a person’s closet and personal style that draws Blahnik to the world of footwear, rather than, say, ready-to-wear clothing. Shoes are, after all, often said to be one of the first elements of a person’s ensemble that others notice — and the last thing they talk about. And a great pair of shoes can act as an anchor in any woman or man’s closet, becoming the de facto footwear choice for virtually any outfit.
“If your foundations are good then the rest of it will follow, so start with the feet,” Blahnik says sagely of the feet-first mentality.
While Blahnik’s collections throughout the years have included virtually every style of shoe imaginable — from heeled sandals to dramatic, hip-high (yes, hip-high) boots — his name has become synonymous with luxurious and often statement-making highheeled styles such as the oft-copied Chaos ankle-strap sandals and the BB pumps.
“Pumps give women an injection of confidence,” Blahnik says of the classic style. “They make women walk fabulous.”
While Blahnik’s heeled shoes have long enjoyed prominence in the pop culture and luxury fashion space, it was perhaps Sarah Jessica Parker’s Manolo Blahnik-obsessed character, Carrie Bradshaw, in the Sex and the City series that catapulted the brand into the collective consciousness. (Google Sex and the City and the designer’s name, and you’ll discover more than 1.3 million search results linking the two.)
The television show and subsequent spinoff movies helped several Manolo Blahnik designs — including the Hangisi satin shoe in cobalt blue, which Bradshaw famously received in lieu of an engagement ring from her beau Mr. Big — to become international sellout sensations.
Those aforementioned crystal embellished heels will be among the 212 shoes and 80 original drawings on display at the Manolo Blahnik: The Art of Shoes exhibit at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, opening May 16.
Prior to taking up its nine-month residency, the touring exhibit was on display in other international cities, each holding a special place in the designer’s personal history: the Palazzo Morando in Milan, an international “fashion capital” that is also home to the factories where Manolo Blahnik shoes are created; the State Museum Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, which is said to be an ongoing source of inspiration for the designer; the Museum Kampa in Prague, where Blahnik’s father is originally from; and the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas in Madrid, Spain, where the designer was born.
The retrospective display, which was co-curated by Cristina Carrillo de Albornoz, is meant to showcase Blahnik’s emphatic ability to merge fashion and art inspirations. Visitors to the shoe-themed spectacle will discover key themes that can be found throughout the designer’s career, spanning back to the early 1970s.
“An appreciation of my craft and a smile of course,” the designer responds when asked what he hopes visitors take away from the Manolo Blahnik: The Art of Shoes exhibit.
The first section of the exhibit, titled Gala, showcases the most “imaginative” shoes from Blahnik’s archives, including the iconic designs created in collaboration with the Oscar-winning costume designer Milena Canonero for use in the 2006 Sofia Coppola’s film Marie Antoinette. The second zone of the exhibit highlights the geographical and cultural inspirations for Blahnik, including references to Japan, England, Russia, Africa and more. As visitors continue to peruse the pieces, they will discover themes focusing on nature, unique materials and feats of construction, and a “Core” section highlighting the most influential people and footwear styles that have had an indelible impact on the London-based designer’s career, such as French actress Brigitte Bardot and former Italian Vogue editor Anna Piaggi.
For Blahnik, the timing for the travelling exhibit felt just right.
“It had been over 15 years since I have done something like this,” he explains. “It’s a smaller curated selection, which is more personal and intimate to me.” He admits the more “intimate” curation is something that appealed to him more than a complete, comprehensive display of his career-spanning work.
“I didn’t want it to be chronological or academic,” he says.
But, while preferred, that level of selectivity didn’t exactly come easily for the celebrated designer. After all, he had more than 45 years worth of footwear designs and sketches to select from and a private archive filled with more than 30,000 styles.
“We originally selected 600 and then edited down to 200,” he admits of the assemblage.
After combing through his expansive personal archive of creations, and selecting the key pieces to be put on display, it would seem a simple task to ask the designer to pinpoint his favourite pair among the elite designs selected. Right? Well, not exactly.
“I have a different one every day of the week!” he admits when asked to pinpoint his favourite pair.
And so, we’re sure, do his fans.