Point me to a fabulous woman in modern history and look down at her shoes. Without a doubt, they’ll be dressed in a chic pair of Manolos, as they have come to be known. Bianca Jagger. Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. Princess Di. Sarah Jessica Parker, probably the brand’s most avid fan. Even Marge Simpson is said to wear Manolos in the iconic television series. And most recently, Alia Bhatt at Cannes.
As the legend goes, Manolo Blahnik found his way into fashion through his close friend Paloma Picasso, Pablo Picasso’s daughter, who introduced him to Diana Vreeland. Her eyes immediately settled on a sketch he had made for Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream — shoes for Hippolyta’s feet, decorated with ivy and cherries. It was his early years growing up on a banana plantation in the Canary Islands that first led him to bring nature to the feet of every man and woman he could.
So when I meet Kristina Blahnik, CEO of Manolo Blahnik and niece to Manolo himself, it is no surprise that she is all shoes and glory as she arrives for our interview at the Manolo Blahnik headquarters in Mayfair. She is wearing a black-and-white dress, her dark hair pulled into a sleek bun, and a matching pair of black Maysale slingbacks on her feet. A classic that she has in every shade, she tells me. “Usually, I have a bright yellow one on. You look down and think, there is sunshine. It might not be up there, but it is down there!”
A former architect, Blahnik now works alongside her uncle on the creative side of the business. But as CEO, she has grown the company many times over, taking it further into the world while bringing it back, in many ways, to where it began: collaboration.
We talked plans for India, there are some in the works, “watch this space,” she says, with the perfect conversation cliffhanger; how she lets Manolo be creative – “Financials do not inspire him,”– and he should only be thinking about what does; shoes as family members, “How is she? Is she in Milan?”; and how she sees the brand now and forever: “We are the jewellers of shoes.”
Read our lightly edited conversation below for more:
Akanksha Kamath (AK): I’d love to start with the most recent big news for the brand — the new Balenciaga collaboration with Pierpaolo Piccioli. It feels like the newest chapter in a long history of collaborations (Rihanna, Birkenstock, Vetements and more). Why Balenciaga?
Kristina Blahnik (KB): Collaborations are very much in the DNA of the brand. Manolo made his mark in fashion through a collaboration with Ossie Clark in the early 1970s, designing his first shoes for the runway with friends. They need to be emotionally connected. With Rihanna, she approached us; we were big admirers, and it was fun. Birkenstock travelled in a different lane of footwear, which brought learning and surprise. Balenciaga brings two Spanish fashion names together at a moment when Pierpaolo is making his mark on the brand. The purpose is never commercial gain. It is learning, passion, storytelling, craftsmanship, and synergies.
Photograph: Balenciaga
AK: You’ve grown the brand to make it a global house today — what about it do you think resonates with the world?
KB: The brand has been growing its global footprint for 55 years. We opened in the US in the late 1970s, in Hong Kong in the 1990s, and in the Middle East over 20 years ago. India is one of the few untrodden territories, and one we are very interested in. Manolo’s creativity and aesthetic have been consistent for over 55 years. It evolves, but is founded on tradition, intellect, and culture. So you are investing in something that has quality, longevity, timelessness, and is also founded on Manolo’s vast, encyclopaedic knowledge of everything.
AK: What inspires your uncle, Manolo, now, and how do you work creatively with him?
KB: Manolo should always be in a space where he can create without outside forces. Inspiration can come from a book, film, exhibition, image, poem, or even a single word. He uses intellectual references and a deep knowledge of them, then fantasy creates collisions. A Bauhaus building might collide with Marie Antoinette and become something new. He does the genesis collection, and I develop it further, building out the concise story. My privilege is to give him freedom to create without thinking about financials. Financials don’t inspire him. It’s only the things that inspire him that he needs to think about. I bridge that, creatively.
AK: I’ve come across the brand’s iconic designs in more museums than I can count! Do you have a favourite era of the brand? Is it Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006) or early designs?
KB: There is no era, and that is the timelessness of it. Fashion is transient. I would rather say my favourite passion of his is botanicals. I love seeing ivy growing up the leg or little roses on a trellis. It is romantic and puts a smile on my face. Manolo grew up on a plantation in the Canary Islands. He adores nature, animals and flowers. He also loves his English garden — the roses.
AK: You’re a trained architect, and then you stepped in to help your uncle with the brand in 2009, and stayed. How do you see shoes through your architectural background?
KB: Shoes are small buildings. They have to be engineered: sound, proportion, materials, functionality, and comfort. The architectural skill I use most is visualising the future. What would I like the house of Manolo to look like in 500 years? It might not be a shoe, but the values must be preserved: creativity, independence, beauty, fun, intellect, and culture. The why has always been to create something beautiful that makes people smile.
AK: What is your personal relationship with your uncle? When it’s not work, how do you two interact?
KB: I don’t think you can separate work from family life, because it is our life. Shoes are a member of our family. Manolo breathes life into them. They aren’t just objects. Everyone is so passionate about these shoes because they have so much story and love put into them. So that’s what we talk about our family — “How can we make her better?” “What are they doing?” “How are they?” “They’re off travelling in, I don’t know, Miami at the moment. Or they’re in Milan. What are they doing over there?” It’s what he lives and breathes, so we talk about that. Also, about what film he’s seen or book he’s read. When we interact about design, it’s very much about, “What about doing something like that?” Or making the heel a bit thicker or thinner, or just adjusting that throat line. He’s always open to ideas being shared with him.
AK: For the brand’s 50th anniversary, you chose to launch a completely virtual, interactive archive. Why did you decide to go digital with it?
KB: Partly circumstance and partly strategy. We celebrated our 50th at the end of 2021, when the world was not ready to celebrate. We had always had the vision of opening the archive digitally, so the world could appreciate and learn from it. I could not think of anything sadder than 50 years of designs never being seen because they have to be preserved. Digitally, it becomes accessible. We built a modular virtual space so we can keep adding rooms. We launched in 2021, added The Craft in 2023, and will keep adding layers.
Read the full story article on ELLE India’s new issue, or download your digital copy via Magzter.
