Born: Santa Cruz, Canary Islands, 1942
‘If God had wanted women to wear flat shoes, he wouldn’t have created Manolo Blahnik,’ wrote Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman in July 1994. An Englishman with branches in New York and a home in Bath, Blahnik is a master shoemaker in a world of plummeting standards. Like most great designers, he follows his own line. He has a distinct aversion to platforms and predominantly uses silk and satin. ‘Quality in everything is paramount,’ he told Vogue in 1990. Of Czech and Spanish parentage, Blahnik studied law, literature and Renaissance art at university in Geneva before moving to London in 1970. On showing his portfolio to Vogue, the then editor Diana Vreeland suggested that he concentrate on shoe designs, a proposal that played an instrumental part in his rise. He opened his first shop and called it Zapata, before reverting to his own name.
Blahnik’s shoes are collected, cosseted and often regarded as being so exquisitely beautiful that they are put on display as works of art. He has been commissioned many times to design shoes for the collections of John Galliano, Isaac Mizrahi, Todd Oldham, Bill Blass and Alexander McQueen, among others. Lucy Ferry, wife of rock star Bryan, told Vogue in 1990, ‘I bought my first pair in 1976 when I was sixteen and I’ve been buying them ever since. Other shoemakers don’t have his imagination, or the incredible detail – such teeny weeny buckles, they’re all perfect.’
