Manolo Blahnik: genius built one step at a time

The most successful models are the Hangisi stiletto-heeled pumps in satin with crystal buckle (from €1,075), the more discreet Maysale, a mule with a slender medium heel (from €695) and, most recently, the winning collaboration with Birkenstock (from €345). A partnership that would once have sounded like an oxymoron - day and night in the world of shoes -, but Blahnik has always been a visionary. He was also so when, a few years ago, he created a collection with Rihanna. He is credited with a definitive word on sandals. 'Forbidden if you have ugly feet, with a bunion for example, but for those with well-groomed feet, they are perfection. As long as they are accompanied by a pedicure with red or natural nail polish, the only two variations the master contemplates.

Loafers in pelle Perry (795 €) e Carlton in velluto con fibbia in cristalli (1.095 €).

An all-round couturier and tireless pivot of the fashion house that bears his name, he is also a point of reference for other designers, who choose him for their catwalks, from Julie de Libran to Grace Wales Bonner. "I love Manolo shoes because they are recognisable, but at the same time completely timeless and extremely comfortable," claims de Libran. 'Perhaps the most comfortable ever, whether it's an 11cm stiletto or flat boots. The materials used are always of absolute quality. I like that it's a family brand, still completely independent'. At the centre, omnipresent, is Manolo: he works tirelessly every day, his daily phone calls to collaborators are legendary. Now that he has recovered, he is ready to visit the centres where his inventions are produced in person. "I'm fed up with Zoom, you can't always do everything remotely".

His life has the feel of a saga. Born in Santa Cruz de La Palma in November 1942, his mother's Spanish family owned a banana plantation in the Canary Islands, where his father, a Czechoslovakian businessman, had taken refuge to escape the rise of fascism. House Blahnik was decidedly Anglophone, living in the myth of Churchill, considered by Manolo's father to be the saviour of Europe. He grew up reading Enid Blyton, Kipling, Dickens and Oscar Wilde. His mother would order magazines and books abroad, along with clothes and accessories. "It would take months to get home, it was so exciting," he recalls. "There was always an issue of Harper's Bazaar, which helped shape my idea of elegance and beauty."

Among his mother's purchases, from Harrods or Le Bon Marché, were Start-Rite sandals, which Manolo always wore on his feet and which he still keeps to this day because they remind him of his childhood and happy times spent with his family. "I have never thought of replicating them, but they are a testimony to how I have always loved shoes: I have a photo of myself as a child, completely naked, with a shoe in my hand". A legend circulates that, as a child, he made micro shoes out of tinfoil for the iguanas that lived near his home. An early vocation that quickly evolved. After a stint at the University of Geneva, where he began studying politics and law before moving on to literature and architecture, he moved to Paris to take courses in art and design, before moving to London in 1969. It was in London that he had his crucial meeting with Diana Vreeland, then director of U.S. Vogue. She immediately appreciated his portfolio and advised him to create shoes. He started with men's models (for 15 guineas a pair), then turned to women. They were expensive models, but 'customers came back because they were quality shoes, which lasted, they didn't fall apart in a short time'.

Fans were not slow to arrive. 'I remember when I bought my first Manolo Blahniks in 1979. I invested my entire university scholarship for a pair of beige and burnt orange suede ankle boots," says his milliner friend Stephen Jones. "For the rest of the season I only ate baked beans!".

Blahnik quickly entered the right circles in London. 'They adopted me immediately, maybe because I was a kind of peacock, or maybe because I was different from the others. It felt like a dream: all those people coming to my shop on King's Road. I'm not a nostalgic person, but sometimes I think back to those years and how wonderful they were. Everything was spontaneous, natural, things happened effortlessly. At the time he lived in Notting Hill, in a flat in Colville Terrace, in the same building as Peter Schlesinger, David Hockney's former lover and muse, and the artist Eric Boman, who would become Schlesinger's partner for over 50 years. They formed an inseparable trio, went to the National Theatre almost every day, and to the most exclusive parties. 'In my first ten years in London every night there was a party with Bianca Jagger. There were four, five, six parties at once to choose from'. Blahnik would leave the shop by cycling to Jagger's home on Cheyne Row. "I'd put on a jacket, a big hat, and go out. I'd come back in in the morning, have a quick shower, and go back to work. I slept three or four hours a night. Allergic to wine and champagne, fond of vodka, he never did drugs.

Memories chase each other on those non-stop evenings, good and bad, funny and sad. "I remember a Mick Jagger birthday party where I danced the night away with Cass Elliot, aka Mama Cass from The Mamas & the Papas. She died shortly after that party, in her flat. It was the summer of 1974'. The best event ever? The one that Karl Lagerfeld organised in his Parisian home for Paloma Picasso's wedding. "I will never forget that party, there were only candles, no electric light. Anna Piaggi (a great friend of his, ndr) wore a huge hat with feathers, which caught fire. They threw napkins and water at her to put it out, while she didn't notice anything'.

Wooed, pursued, acclaimed, Manolo was immortalised by the greatest photographers: the aforementioned Irving Penn, and then David Bailey and Helmut Newton, who portrayed him in a pinstripe suit and a pair of high heels. "I only did it for Helmut!" He laughs, but in reality he has always felt comfortable in heels: 'I always tried on shoes at the factory, size 42 or 43, which is my size. I never thought there was a big difference between men and women. I don't pay attention to gender distinctions, nothing seems strange or really surprises me, that's how I am, I get used to novelty immediately'.

The secret to staying contemporary? "My shoes are worn with clothes by Jean Paul Gaultier, Valentino and many great designers. It's a commitment: I have to know and know more than any other designer. Then I forget everything and create the way I like".

Designer, writer and consultant Amanda Harlech has been wearing her shoes since the beginning, 'since an ex-boyfriend of mine took me to Zapata, a brand for which Blahnik, in the early days, designed shoes. They were sandals with pimento-coloured suede straps, made for dancing". Harlech ventures a comparison with Karl Lagerfeld, with whom he worked for decades, both at Fendi and Chanel: 'Karl had the same fickle talent of taking the world as it was perceived and reinventing it, creating something completely new and able to inspire others. Blahnik everything from the heart. I think that's why he loves to be alone, with his beloved dogs, drawing, dreaming, sketching'.

Yet Manolo is convinced that 'I am not very good at understanding what others want. I just do what I like. The shoes that, at first glance, seem too expensive or difficult to wear, those very shoes sell the most!' He cites Mario, a model from the men's collection, covered in a jacquard patchwork (1,195 euro), and a classic like Carlton (1,195 euro), a loafer decorated with a large crystal buckle, a dandy's shoe, à la Beau Brummell. 'Then maybe I imagine a very modern shoe, very accessible, and it doesn't sell'. Blahnik is known to despise trainers, but appreciates tennis shoes, which he has revised into the Semanado model (€595).

In a world dominated by so-called vanilla fashion - be it athleisure, the tendency to wear clothes designed for sport in glamorous or formal settings, or gorpcore, the useful ugly, outdoor as streetwear - Blahnik brings us back to a luxury 'hungry for beauty', to paraphrase journalist André Leon Talley. A trend that is making a comeback as sportswear gives way to a newfound sartorial emphasis. "I'm glad because that's the only way to make purchases that last forever, and that you can then gradually combine with new pieces: that's style. Of course, even high-quality garments eventually deteriorate, but it takes many years before that happens. At the moment I am mourning a green cashmere suit that Ralph Lauren himself sent me: the trousers have become as thin as French lace!'.

To speak of retirement is premature, even to mention it seems inappropriate, yet the designer is aware that the company and the business are in safe hands. "Kristina has worked in almost every industry: as a child, she spent a lot of time in the shop on Old Church Street, she knows everything. She remembers when, after finishing her homework, she would brush all the suede shoes in the boutique. She took over from her mother Evangelina, Blahnik's sister, who became managing director of the brand. With Evangelina, the business has grown beyond New York and London and moved into Asian and Middle Eastern markets; Kristina has propelled it into digital. This year there will be a significant expansion into China with the opening of a few flagship stores, after the Blahniks won a 22-year legal battle against a local entrepreneur to regain full control over the family brand. This is the first time that Manolo shoes will be sold in this market - a market that promises to be huge.

When I ask him how he feels about being over eighty, he replies: 'I don't think about it much, actually. I am lucky to have made it this far. Sometimes I wonder if I should have worked less and lived more, but in reality I know I have lived a lot. I have no regrets and I am not afraid of dying. I am only afraid of suffering.

Two years ago, when he discovered he was at risk of diabetes, he cut out sugar completely. A blow for someone like him who loves Banana Daiquiri and only comes back to London to go to Wiltons in Mayfair for bread-and-butter pudding. While we are still talking, a co-worker enters the room to remind us that our interview time is up, and hands him a box of truffles. He lets out a deep sigh, reaches out, takes a small one, unwraps it carefully and savours it slowly. "Better than an orgasm, assuming I still remember what it's like!" All three of us burst out laughing at this double breach of the rule, of modesty and diet. And on this provocation we say goodbye.

LONG STEPS  MANOLO BLAHNIK .