The Life, Style, Shoes and Wearable Art of Manolo Blahnik

Manolo Blahnik is famed for his beautiful, stylised footwear which is as close to art as a shoe can get.

It was when Carrie Bradshaw in an episode of Sex and the City begged a mugger to take anything but her Manolo Blahniks that the shoe designer, already famous among haute couture circles, also became famous to mainstream shoppers. By the way, the mugger knew a good deal when he saw one and left taking only the shoes.

Manolo Blahnik
Manolo Blahnik was born in the Canary Islands and was raised on a banana plantation by his Czech father and Spanish mother. Despite living a seemingly secluded life with both Manolo and his sister being home schooled the family would often go on trips to Paris and Madrid. Here Manolo's parents would buy clothes from designer houses such as Balenciaga. His mother was so enamoured with high fashion that she subscribed to Vogue and Glamour which would be shipped to her from Cuba and Argentina. She would even on occasion make her own espadrille style shoes, something which Manolo now credits as one of the reasons he feels he was drawn to the world of shoes.

Manolo did not originally begin his career with shoes or even fashion in mind. After studying languages and art at university he moved to Paris in 1965 and became a set designer. It was whilst looking at his set designs in 1970 that Vogue editor Diane Vreeland noted his amusing shoe designs and suggested this should be the area he concentrated his work on.

After visiting factories to see how machine operators and pattern cutters worked he decided to pursue this idea and set up his business in London in 1971. He was shot to fashion fame when the then very famous Ossie Clark used Manolo's shoes in his fashion shows.

The Work of Manolo Blahnik
Manolo Blahnik is seen as a master of his trade and is the sole person to work on his designs and prototypes with no assistants or apprentices. He will sculpt the heel of each prototype first by machine then by hand in order to get the perfect dimensions and shape.

Manolo has been honoured with awards from the Council of Fashion Designers of America and the British Fashion Council.

Manolo's Shoes as Art
In 2003 the Design Museum in London had an exhibition of Manolo's work. In addition two books of his work were published. One a book of his sketches called Drawings in 2003 and one in 2005 which was a photographic journal of his shoes with an introduction by Paloma Picasso. Original sketches of Manolo's work are now as coveted, and expensive, as his shoes.

The Shoes
Sofia Coppola commissioned Manolo to create hundreds of pairs of shoes for the film Marie Antoinette. The exquisite beautifully detailed shoes in the movie are typical of Manolo's work. They are made in beautiful silks and satins and are abundant with jewels, ribbons and embroidery. The film went on to win an Academy Award for Best Costume.

Manolo has a great passion and long refined knowledge for creating the perfect shoe both in structure and design. In an interview he once said of this “I’ve been studying the art of the shoe… for over twenty years. I know every process. I know how to cut and cut away here.... and still make it so that it stays on the foot.... And the heel. Even if it’s twelve centimetres high it still has to feel secure – and that’s a question of balance. That’s why I carve each heel personally myself.”

If you are interested in the history of style you may also want to read about Tiffany & Co, Louis Vuitton.

The copyright of the article Manolo Blahnik Shoes is owned by Dulcinea Norton-Smith. Permission to republish Manolo Blahnik Shoes in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

First published on Suite101.com