Manolo Blahnik
You may no him as Carrie Bradshaw's one main love in life, apart from Mr Big that is, but aside from that, what do you actually know about the famous shoe designer?
Well, he was born in 1942 to wealthy parents. His Czech father's family owned a Prague pharmaceutical firm and his Spanish mother's family ran a banana plantation. What's interesting about Manolo Blahnik is that he comes from a long line of footwear appreciators, not such a surprise now, but hearing about his background, it was maybe not so obvious that this would be his career path.
His mother used to make her own evening shoes and Blahnik himself also revealed a talent for shoe design from a very young age. He used to dress up his pet dogs and monkeys in early versions of his stunning footwear.
Graduating from the University of Geneva in 1965, he then embarked on a mission to study art in Paris before moving to London in 1970. During this period he worked as a jeans buyer for a London boutique and wrote for Vogue Italia. Blahnik also worked at fashion boutique Zapata for a while, but it was during his trip to New York in 1971 that his destiny was sealed.
The then-US Vogue editor Diana Vreeland saw some of his designs and sketches and advised him to concentrate solely on footwear, which would ultimately see him taking a change of direction completely. It seemed to work because in 1972, Ossie Clark invited him to create some fabulous footwear for his new runway show. Shortly after in 1973 and with a loan of £2,000 Blahnik bought Zapata and opened his own boutique.
Blahnik then expanded to New York, Hong Kong and Beverly Hills in the ensuing decades, while maintaining his London headquarters. He is undoubtedly one of the most famous shoemakers in the world, counting endless celebrities among his cliental.
He's become more universally known worldwide thanks to his starring role on hit TV show Sex and The City. Even though he never made a cameo, he was virtually in every scene, granted it was his footwear not he, who made an appearance, but thanks to the show he has become a designer whose name is now synonymous with their product.
In one hilarious scene, Sarah Jessica Parker's character gets mugged on the street and after taking her bag and phone, he proceeds to ask for her 'Blahniks' too. She looks genuinely horrified at having her favourite strappy sandals stolen, but it just shows how popular the shoes had become, even on the black market, as the show joked.
To show his appreciation, Blahnik even created the SJP shoe in honour of the star, and she was said to be delighted with the tribute. With a sequel to the hit movie already in the pipeline, we're sure we can expect more fabulous footwear from the designer in the next movie. Fingers crossed girls...