manolo

MANOLO BLAHNIK

"People walk differently in high heels. Your body sways to a different kind of tempo."

manolo
manolo manolo manolo manolo manolo manolo manolo

Manolo Blahnik is a Spanish shoe designer and founder of the self-named, high-end shoe brand, which is eaily recognizable based on the shoes’ light, elegant, and feminine look.

Blahnik inherited his love for fashion from his mother. He spent a few years in college, but he eventually moved to Paris to study art and stage set design. In 1968, he moved to London to work as a buyer at a fashion boutique and writer for L’Uomo Vogue, an Italian men’s version of Vogue. Early in his career, Blahnik had worked with other fashion designers, such as Ossie Clark, Jean Muir, and Zandra Rhodes.

He learned the skills of shoe making by visiting shoe factories and talking to pattern cutters, technicians and machine operators. Initially, he designed men’s footwear, but found that men’s shoes design didn’t require much imagination, and moved on to design women’s footwear.

Blahnik bought the fashion boutique he had worked at when he moved to London and opened his own boutique. In 1977, he sold his shoes in America, through Bloomingdales, and opened his boutique in the U.S. Blahnik's first store remains to date in London. Blahnik's other boutiques are located in New York, Las Vegas, Dublin, Athens, Madrid, Istanbul, Dubai, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore and Stockholm. Bloomingdales (for which he created his first American collection), Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Barneys, Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue carry his line in the United States and newly opened Dubai Mall.