It has been more than four decades since women have been walking like the world is their runway and we owe it all to one of my favourite footwear designer, Manolo Blahnik. I consider him a titan of contemporary fashion as he is the creator of the most beautiful heels around the globe, and so far he has designed more than 30,000 individual shoe styles – all of them under his signature, since he’s still the company’s only designer.
Rizzoli pays homage to the life and work of Mr Blahnik with a new book titled “Manolo Blahnik: Fleeting Gestures and Obsessions”, a compendium of esoteric, exhilarating conversations between Manolo Blahnik and everyone from a Prado curator to Pedro Almodóvar and Sofia Coppola.
Photo: Michael Roberts / Courtesy of Rizzoli
This 488-pages book provides a comprehensive look of the designer’s inspiration from art, literature, film and architecture, featuring more than 250 designs from his archive, along with a large selection of sketches and never-before-seen photography of his designs.
Photo: Michael Roberts / Courtesy of Rizzoli
The book is divided into different chapters that echo Mr Blahnik’s obsession with his muses, including Marie Antoinette and Cecil Beaton, as well as his passion for painters like Zurbaran, Velazquez and Picasso, filmmakers like Antonioni and Visconti, and writers like Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and Gore Vidal.
Photo: Michael Roberts / Courtesy of Rizzoli
What actually transpired is a volley of Old Hollywood film references, ’70s heyday nostalgia, and a plundering of Mr. Blahnik’s inspirations and fixations, all getting at the driving question: Where do the shoes come from? The answer in brief: movies, women, and women in movies.
Photo: Michael Roberts / Courtesy of Rizzoli
Recently awarded the 2015 Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion for over 40-years of service to shoe design, Mr Blahnik starts the interview talking about the decisive encounter in 1970 in New York with Diane Vreeland, Vogue’s editor in chief, who, marveled by his portfolio, encouraged him to go into designing footwear and, of course, continues discussing about the most powerful relationships and the women who have inspired him over the years—Anna Piaggi, Paloma Picasso.
Photo: Michael Roberts / Courtesy of Rizzoli
Mr Blahnik details his fascination with personalities as varied as Julie Christie, and Cambridge classics professor Mary Beard, and sheds light on how his designs weave in influences from Grecian sandals to Goya canvasses. He talks about the importance of iconic fashion designers like Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Gianni Versace and Gianfranco Ferré and how fashion has changed in 21st century.
Photo: Michael Roberts / Courtesy of Rizzoli
Explaining sections of the book in the course of these meandering interview, Mr Blahnik judges the naked feet of Alain Delon in Purple Noon to be “divine,” and grows delirious gazing at the name of Claudia Cardinale, a Sicilian actress who possesses sensual, Mediterranean looks that perfectly complement the allure of Manolo Blahnik’s shoes. ‘She is a timeless Italian beauty and one of my favourite actresses of all time,’ Blahnik notes. ‘She starred in my beloved film by [Luchino] Visconti, Il Gattopardo, which I must have watched hundreds of times.’
Photo: Michael Roberts / Courtesy of Rizzoli
Every shoe Blahnik makes is a character in a narrative, to whom he’s given the breath of life. His shoes are the outward expressions of all the layers and layers of intimidating, inspiring, spirited, encyclopedic information packed inside his head.
Photo: Michael Roberts / Courtesy of Rizzoli
Blahnik’s artistry in combining high-end design, premium materials and functionality has made him a living legend. His unique sense of color and proportion, as well as his remarkable ability to set his own trends, are an endless source of inspiration for the new generation of shoemakers.
Photo: Michael Roberts / Courtesy of Rizzoli
Photo: Michael Roberts / Courtesy of Rizzoli
At the end of such inspirational event, a big round of applause invaded the room while he signed books and demonstrated that the former editor-at-large for American Vogue, André Leon Talley, is definitely right:
“What Yves Saint Laurent is to couture, Manolo Blahnik is to shoes.”
Photo: Michael Roberts / Courtesy of Rizzoli
