"Manolo Blahnik grew up with Marie Antoinette. Not literally, of course - she died in France in 1793, and Blahnik was born on La Palma in the Canary Islands 149 years later. But he has been obsessed with the ill-fated queen since childhood - a memory that has lingered and shaped the way he has designed women's shoes for some 55 years."
""Somehow I saw a film," Blahnik says. "I don't remember the title now ... L'impératrice or something. It was like a documentary type of film they show before a children's movie. And it was a little short on Marie Antoinette." Besides that, he also had unusual bedtime stories. "When I was a boy I had nightmares, so my mother came to read to me, to comfort me. She read Stefan Zweig's Marie Antoinette. These are the beginnings of my fixation.""
"The ill-fated life story of Marie Antoinette is not the usual fairy tale told to children. But it led to a fixation that, of course, has a connection to Blahnik's other passion: designing shoes. Marie Antoinette was particularly well shod - shoes had become a big deal at the French court under Louis XIV, who originated the notion of talons rouge (red heels) that could only be worn by the highest level of aristocracy."
Manolo Blahnik developed a lifelong fixation on Marie Antoinette beginning in childhood, when a short film and his mother reading Stefan Zweig's Marie Antoinette comforted him during nightmares. The fixation has lingered and influenced his approach to designing women's shoes for some 55 years. Marie Antoinette's court elevated footwear to a signifier of status, with Louis XIV's talons rouge reserved for the aristocracy and etiquette requiring the queen to commission four new handmade pairs each week. That courtly emphasis on luxurious, ornate shoes links directly to Blahnik's fascination and informs his motifs and craftsmanship.
Read at AnOther
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]