Banish your flats... haute heels are here
FOR SANDRA CHOI, creative director of Jimmy Choo, the signifier of a job well done is when people are having so much fun, feeling so fabulous, if you like, that they forget about their shoes. ‘They shouldn’t be thinking about their feet,’ she says.
It’s an admirable, though perhaps unlikely, ambition this season. For S/S ’22, Sandra has joined forces with Mugler creative director Casey Cadwallader for a new collaborative capsule that is unforgettable for all the right reasons. Megan Fox and Dua Lipa are already fans.
Conversations between Sandra and Casey began in 2019. Given their shared appreciation of ‘how a pair of shoes can transform everything and put you in the right mindset’, she felt a synergy between the two of them and the brands. Femininity, confidence and glamour are the shared language of both, she says. ‘If you cut open the two brands, you can actually feel it.’
The resulting collection – which stars graphic sock boots, multi-strap gladiators that slash up to the knee and gobstopper bijou-embellished sandals – doesn’t just complement Casey’s vision for Mugler but also the empowered femininity made iconic by founder Thierry Mugler, who passed away earlier this year. ‘Is it art? Is it fantasy? Or is it fashion?’ says Sandra of his legacy. ‘That was quite mindblowing.’
Thanks to lockdown restrictions, much of the collection was deliberated and designed via Whatsapp, phone calls and laptop screens. Thankfully, it comes to life in time for the revenge of waist-down dressing. ‘Traditional boundaries have been so pushed, which is nice to see. There’s a lot of innovation happening. Shoes are no longer so traditional or classical any more,’ says Sandra of (almost) post-pandemic style. ‘I think, at the moment, fashion is quite “take your pick”. You can be whoever you want right now, you don’t need to conform to anything.’