Can you tell us about ‘A New Way of Walking’, and how audiences can experience it?The title ‘A New Way of Walking’ stems from Manolo’s first show in 1971 for Ozzie Clark. Manolo was vulnerable: he was not a shoemaker, was a creative, a designer, a sculptor, an artist, an intellect and he happened to put that all into a shoe however without having the craft as an apprentice. He didn’t know you had to put a pin in the heel so he created these great rubber soles and that didn’t have structure in them so people were walking with the shoe wobbling underneath them!
He assumed it would be the end of his career, but then it was described to him as 'a new way of walking' and was celebrated. I think that’s very a beautiful title for this moment.The title also represents Manolo's curiosity - he is still seeking the perfect way of walking. Even to this day he says he hasn’t designed his perfect shoe yet.
The title is also aspirational as well. It was a dream I had for my uncle’s legacy which was to open up an archive that I photographed 22 years ago, and let people see it. I always find it sad when you see archives that are hidden away from the world in vaults. What are they doing if they aren’t seen? My heart bleeds for all those beautiful art pieces in the world that aren’t seen. Surely the point of art is to be seen and Manolo’s pieces are art, whether it is drawings or his shoes.
The pandemic gave us the opportunity to reflect on how we would celebrate our 50 years. Pre-pandemic it may have been a party with lots of people but instead, we looked at it from a different perspective. What can we do that has much more long-term meaning and value?
Why did you decide to open the archives in this way? Because it is the very beginnings of a lifelong, and beyond our lifetime, donation of Manolo’s creativity. It is something that will evolve over time, this is just the humble beginnings of it. It has been built in a modular way so that we can add more and more stories and spaces and curators over time.
Additionally, as technologies evolve, we want to look at virtual reality and other forms of technologies so that it is not something that’s deployed, delivered, and presented now and stays static. As with all of us, it is going to grow, live and breathe, adapt, and evolve.
Manolo Blahnik previously partnered The Wallace Collection to showcase the brands incredible designs. Do you see digital customer experiences overtaking in person post-pandemic world?No. I see them sitting alongside each other. I think as humans we need physical, but equally the opportunities that the digital realm gives us. For example, for The Wallace Collection, (which was one of the most magical moments of my career) in this beautiful little Blahnik world, you had to be in the UK, you had to be in London as that was the only way. However, with this you can see it anywhere at any time.
We have such a wonderful community of students and people that are curious about the brand that can now experience it in a much deeper way. Through the archives they can learn that Manolo isn’t a shoe designer, but an academic with incredible cultural understanding - he just happens to express himself in an object, that happens to be a shoe.
Manolo Blahnik celebrated its 50th year this year. How else have you marked this milestone?There are synergies and symbioses in everything we try and do. Nothing is in isolation to something else. We have five pillars in our business and three of them are creativity, product and family and those are the three that we are celebrating.
We have a beautiful golden collection – Manolo doesn’t like the number 50, but we have a golden collection for our golden year. We also have beautiful capsule collection of gold inspired shoes. Some that are reinventions of our classics and then brand-new styles.
One in particular that is close to my family’s heart is a little series of anklets with gold bells on them in 24 carat gold plate. This is really an ode to my grandmother who is my uncle and my mother’s greatest inspiration. She used to have a little bracelet with bells on with each one having the name of her family members. As she walked through the house you could hear her, and she said it was to remind her of everyone that she loved all of time. So that is our first pillar – our product. The second pillar, the creativity of Manolo and others, was communicated through exposing the archives for everyone to see. Finally, the third pillar is our community and our people as the wonderful saying goes that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and there are so many incredible parts that make Manolo Blahnik the brand that it is. These parts support Manolo, the man, to be the greatest person he can be and create the greatest things. It is really celebrating that and that’s one of the spaces within our archives. It’s a moment of celebrating the past, capturing the present and looking to the future.
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