This year we celebrate 50 years of Manolo Blahnik. For 50 years, the Spanish designer has inspired us, delighted us, and created shoes that have almost become a symbol of dreams coming true.
50 years of Manolo Blahnik
– Young man – make things, make accessories, make shoes
Manuel "Manolo" Blahnik was born in 1942 in Spain, where he grew up with his family on a banana plantation in the Canary Islands. His parents had grand visions of him becoming a diplomat, and at their wish, he began studies in politics and law. It wasn't long before the creative Blahnik realized this wasn't for him, and so changed his field of study to architecture and literature. After completing his studies, he moved to Paris, where he studied art and scenography. In Paris, he also took a part-time job in a vintage clothing store. At the age of 27, he moved again, this time to London, where he got a job as a buyer for the clothing store Feathers, while also writing for the men's magazine, L'Uomo Vogue.
Around this time, on a trip to New York, Blahnik also had the opportunity to meet the legendary then-Vogue editor, Diana Vreeland. During this meeting, the young creator shared his work, in the form of sketches of scenography and fashion, with Vreeland, and she loved what she saw. "Young man – make things, make accessories, make shoes" she is said to have said then, and who wouldn't follow such a request from Diana Vreeland herself?
In 1971, Manolo Blahnik launched his own brand under his own name, and the rest is a dazzling piece of fashion history.
Manolo Blahnik’s official debut as a shoe designer was when he designed shoes for the catwalk on commission for Ossie Clark, and almost 20 years later it was another catwalk, for another designer that marked the beginning of one of the brand's most iconic designs.
In 1991, Manolo Blahnik was commissioned to design shoes for the catwalk for Isaac Mizrahi. The goal was to combine a kitten heel with a so-called "pilgrim buckle," and the result was Maysale. The perfect mule, which later gained a sister with a slingback – Maysli. Today, the Maysale model is one of the brand's most popular classics.
But in addition to creating shoes worthy of a runway, Manolo Blahnik is primarily loved for his ability to make women feel both beautiful and strong. So which shoes does one actually choose when one is Princess Diana and is attending a dinner at The Serpentine Gallery in London in 1994, after her husband has admitted to infidelity on national TV? Manolo Blahnik, of course – and the revenge dress.
Blahnik also designed shoes for Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006) – a film where the designer truly got to show his fondness for silk, brocade, antique lace, and large, eye-catching buckles. But there is probably no film or TV series that has made Manolo Blahnik a bigger star than Sex and the City. For to the same extent that Sex and the City was about sex, friendship, love, and New York, it was also about fashion, and most of all about shoes. We can almost go as far as to say that there were two men in Carrie's life – Mr. Big and Manolo Blahnik.
Through six seasons, we follow Carrie Bradshaw, running through the streets of New York clad in Manolo Blahniks, in search of true love. Therefore, it was only fitting that when she finally found it, the proposal was made official with the ultimate "something blue" – royal blue Hangisi from Manolo Blahnik, which she also wore at the wedding itself. A design that saw the light of day with the first Sex and the City movie in 2008, and which now – over ten years later – is perhaps the brand's most popular design. Let's call it a love story.
In 2017, the documentary ‘Manolo: The boy who made shoes for lizards’ was released. Watch the trailer here:
