Manolo’s night with the stars
MANOLO Blahnik, the inimitable maestro of magical shoes, was celebrated in Manhattan at a screening of the first documentary about his life.
Fashion icons flocked to the screening at the Frick, including Carolina Herrera, Iris Apfel and Amy Fine Collins, who told Page Six moments after the film screened, “This was by far the best event of New York Fashion Week.”
Bianca Jagger, a longtime friend of the impeccably dressed but impossibly camera-shy Blahnik (inset, right), said of the film, “It was sublime, I have been friends with Manolo for many years, but I learned much more about him.”
The movie — titled “Manolo: The Boy Who Made Shoes for Lizards” — features interviews with the likes of Anna Wintour, who drops her guard — and her sunglasses — and says, “I can’t remember the last time I wore somebody else’s shoes. I mean, I don’t even look at them.” She adds, “He may not recognize this, but he has become a legend.”
After more than 40 years creating the most sublime shoes that have been worn by women from Princess Diana to Kate Moss and Kate Middleton, and whose designs had a recurring starring role on “Sex and the City,” Blahnik, 74, is fondly discussed on film by fashion’s finest, such as Naomi Campbell, André Leon Talley, Rihanna and John Galliano.
But Manolo remained modest amid the attention and told us at the Cinema Society event, “I am glad you liked the film, but I really don’t like to see myself on camera.” The movie, from Music Box Films, was released Friday in NYC and LA.
Guests also included Mario Testino, Architectural Digest Editor-in-Chief Amy Astley, ex-French Vogue editor Joan Juliet Buck, photographer Sante D’Orazio, producer Allison Sarofim and Blahnik’s niece Kristina Blahnik, his “left-hand woman’ ”and CEO of his company. They mingled with designers Erin Fetherston and Adam Lippes, Cinema Society founder Andrew Saffir, Amplify’s Daniel Benedict and Greg Calejo, photographer Myrna Suarez and society staples Jamee Gregory, Debbie Bancroft and Whitney Fairchild. Herrera estimated to Vogue that she has over 1,000 pairs of Blahnik’s shoes.