Manolo Blahnik Quotes & Sayings

I don't think about myself very much. — Manolo Blahnik

The secret of toe cleavage, a very important part of the sexuality of the shoe; you must only show the first two cracks. — Manolo Blahnik

My whole life has been a huge mistake, but what a divine mistake - doing something that I adore. — Manolo Blahnik

Shoes are the quickest way for women to achieve instant metamorphosis. — Manolo Blahnik

I don't even know Amanda Seyfried or whatever - they're all the same! — Manolo Blahnik

Papa died when he was 77. — Manolo Blahnik

I forget about the diseases that I have. I don't want to know. — Manolo Blahnik

But it is hard to resist the feeling that 70th was some kind of golden age. — Manolo Blahnik

I'm always kind of contradictory to what people want and what's selling. But maybe I should care now because I have two or three more outlets. I have to be more adaptable color-wise to what people want. It's usually just black and pink, and that's it. — Manolo Blahnik

The only people that come to my mind in the last years are Lee McQueen and John Galliano. Truly, truly ... How do I say? Full of ideas. Full of the smell. They just had this incredible passion for what they did. — Manolo Blahnik

I'm a great observer of delicate situations and women. I really like that bygone type of movement, and for a long time I had been looking for it. — Manolo Blahnik

The greatest luxury is being free. — Manolo Blahnik

Maintenance is terribly important. — Manolo Blahnik

I don't belong to anyone. — Manolo Blahnik

I'm totally twisted. Instead of, "Oh god, I don't have platforms - they won't like me," I was much more, "I'm doing what I'm doing, and if you don't want to buy it, then don't buy, but that's just what I'm gonna do." It gave me strength. It worked for me. — Manolo Blahnik

I do enjoy my own company. I cannot imagine anybody entertaining me more than I do. If it sounds selfish, I don't care. I made it a religion almost. — Manolo Blahnik

You put high heels on and you change. — Manolo Blahnik

I always love China, especially the old China. — Manolo Blahnik

I saw this vision with a beautiful plastic bag in Kensington High Street, ... and then you didn't see the face because he had this blond thing [indicating a sweeping fringe across his face] that was, you know, too much! — Manolo Blahnik

The gimmicky thing I'm not very keen on. — Manolo Blahnik

You'd see extraordinary-looking people around in the '70s. It was so exciting! You'd have mad people, like Gerlinde [Kostiff] riding around on her bicycle with a huge hat. Everybody was doing things. I don't have any bad memories of that period. — Manolo Blahnik

When I was out of favor and people didn't want that type of boot, flats, or high heels with the elegant, dainty things, it gave me much more energy. — Manolo Blahnik

Remain dignified, dress well, be good to other people and you'll be fine. — Manolo Blahnik

Peter Hinwood found all these old pictures - Polaroids - and when I saw them, I just didn't believe that the person in them was connected with me. I was in a hotel room with one of those front-and-back mirrors, and I thought, Who the hell is that? I used to be thin as a rake. I used to have the nice-shaped pecs. It's sad. No, it's not sad, it's the reality, and I've accepted this now. — Manolo Blahnik

I like women with style to wear my shoes. — Manolo Blahnik

Most of the people nowadays send their things by internet. But I cannot work that way. I like to do it myself. — Manolo Blahnik

] I'm loyal to my thoughts, to my friends. This is what I really like the best. Loyalty. Sounds goody-goody. Maybe that's not the one you wanted. — Manolo Blahnik

I thought Victoria Beckham was going to be one of those pop girls, but she's absolutely the complete opposite. She's a working girl. She knows what she wants. And when she doesn't know, she really prepares herself. I love this working type of women. And she's a girl from - I don't even know where she's from. — Manolo Blahnik

I couldn't care less about business. — Manolo Blahnik

Passion is passion. It's a sort of madness and possession of what you do or what you think. This is the difference of life: passion and commerce, which most of the people know as "P.C." But people have just got "C" now instead of "P." — Manolo Blahnik

I get more tired by travelling than anything. — Manolo Blahnik

I never watched those Spice Girls. I didn't enjoy that at all. So I didn't know Victoria Beckham well. But she came out with this pretty boy, got married, and the boy got more tattoos and more tattoos. And then I met her a few times, and we started work, and something happened. You know, she wanted it. She loves what she's doing. — Manolo Blahnik

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

If I was a woman, I would be dressed in the same thing for a month and just change my hat and gloves. Maybe my shoes too; yes, I see what you mean but, really, it's jewels that change an outfit. — Manolo Blahnik

What is fashion? It's discipline. Discipline and a credo to do only the best, down to the smallest detail. — Manolo Blahnik

If I look back I feel frightened, not happy, because my life is a bit of a mystery to me. — Manolo Blahnik

My mother is incredible. I mean, still is today. — Manolo Blahnik

I do and re-do things that I used to do in a flash, because I want to be more perfectionist about these things. Maybe it sounds pompous and pretentious, but that's the way I feel. — Manolo Blahnik

I never wanted to be the most famous, the most beautiful, the most extravagant. — Manolo Blahnik

I think Lucy Ferry, now Birley, is absolutely beautiful. She's a modern girl, but she moves beautifully. Amanda [Harlech] moves beautifully when she's not working. All those English leftover society girls. — Manolo Blahnik

You get two weeks after you do a shoe where you can test whether it's good or not - if you're going to like it in 20 years. Then I know that it's going to be my shoe for a long time. That doesn't happen very often, but it happens. — Manolo Blahnik

I didn't need it [formal training], because I've got the best taste in the world. — Manolo Blahnik

I hate these platforms that are all over the place today; they are all about grabbing attention. They are suburban! I never do a platform. Well, I did, in the 1970s, but that was a bad experience. — Manolo Blahnik

I was a young man, and this is the kind of London it was, but so many people are just not here anymore. Not even Tina [Chow], who was to me absolutely the most important girl of the time. Tina was absolutely the chicest thing, the way she kept herself, the way she moved. You're born like that - you cannot acquire it. All those upper-class girls, people like Catherine Tennant, they used to be there in Chelsea, sitting on the couch. Now Chelsea is full of Russians. — Manolo Blahnik

Everything is global now. It's not London, it's not Spain, it's not Italy - everything is everywhere. So you have to be everywhere, I guess. — Manolo Blahnik

I think of each new season as an evolution, not a change in style. — Manolo Blahnik

I only saw one collection of Victoria Beckham, and I thought it was very much like Pierre Cardin or Marcel Rochas dresses. She's thought about it, and she knows what she wants. And people buy it, so that means she works. She has this incredible will power to do something that she likes to do. And I love that. I respect that. — Manolo Blahnik

I'm OK: I don't need money. — Manolo Blahnik

The only way I can cope with me and my environment is to have this kind of wall around me. I'm exhausting myself. — Manolo Blahnik

I put everything I think is sexy into my shoes. — Manolo Blahnik

Paris is paramount for fashion, always was - always will be. — Manolo Blahnik

I saw these girls like Sherilyn Fenn and Lara Flynn Boyle that should be working now instead of these anonymous girls. They're all the same. — Manolo Blahnik

I hate celebrities. — Manolo Blahnik

Men tell me that I've saved their marriages. It costs them a fortune in shoes, but it's cheaper than a divorce. So I'm still useful, you see. — Manolo Blahnik

I do think one should have clean feet. — Manolo Blahnik

I eat a lot of chocolate. — Manolo Blahnik

I'm not very nostalgic, you see. I just don't think anybody has that kind of thing anymore. By culture, by breeding, by whatever, it's not there. The kids today-what the hell are they going to be? I like young people - yes, I do. But when I talk to people at the schools, and they say, "I saw you on the Twit," I don't even know what they are talking about. — Manolo Blahnik

I like the new shoe designers. Not all of them - there are really bad ones too. But I go to the colleges with these kids for lectures, as an honorary professor or whatever, and this Chinese girl I like very much who I give the award to says to me, "You don't know how much you inspired me to do shoes." And I'm glad that I convey that kind of desire to people when they see my bloody shoes. — Manolo Blahnik

I am not a movie star or a football player, I just do my thing. — Manolo Blahnik

Really, the '70s and '80s were a blur. — Manolo Blahnik

I just don't get death at all. Yes, it's there. But I don't get it. — Manolo Blahnik

I think I am one of the smallest surviving brands. — Manolo Blahnik

When I was a boy I remember the women, how they dressed, how they behaved, what was important to them at the time. Like Lee Marvin and Gloria Grahame in The Big Heat. — Manolo Blahnik

Sometimes I hate a shoe in seconds. — Manolo Blahnik

It's the only thing I get inspired by! I get inspired by dreams. Who cares about the rest? — Manolo Blahnik

I don't know why my shoes are so popular - I am always surprised and mystified by it. — Manolo Blahnik

When somebody wants to work and believes in something, it doesn't matter if you're well known or rich or whatever it is. — Manolo Blahnik

The greatest shoemaker in England for many, many decades; he used to be the royal shoe-maker for the Queen Mother. This is where I learnt my trade. — Manolo Blahnik

I don't even think about the word. But I do have certain things where I just go, "Aaaaahhh," irritatingly boring and insistent because I want it to look that way and I can do it - I don't even know if you'd call it passion or obsession. Obsession, possibly, but I really love what I do. — Manolo Blahnik

I'm very painful to deal with when I create a shoe. — Manolo Blahnik

I wish I was making shoes instead of reading or watching movies, which is what I do in my free time. — Manolo Blahnik

My shoes are special shoes for discerning feet. — Manolo Blahnik

I'm mad for satin. — Manolo Blahnik

It was so interesting that the girls were moving in such a different way. — Manolo Blahnik

I watched L'eclisse [1962] with Alain Delon and Monica Vitti. Changed my world. What a glamorous and modern film. This is what a genius is - the thing of a genius. The dresses, the tiny heels, the Cardin look, the boys dressed up as Italian gigolos - it was divine, very modern. [ Michelangelo] Antonioni, I loved and I realized: how modern. — Manolo Blahnik

Some people just use beautiful things to just shop or to have a tribal feeling - 'Oh, blah, blah, blah, I'm wearing Hermes; blah, blah, blah, I'm wearing Saint Laurent; blah-blah blah' - because it's like a need, a tribe, recognition: 'Ahh, my Rolex.' But I run away from anything which is too recognizable - it's my nature. — Manolo Blahnik

These are very dainty and superrefined, but really vile. — Manolo Blahnik

About half my designs are controlled fantasy, 15 percent are total madness and the rest are bread-and-butter designs. — Manolo Blahnik

Women are wearing tight and sexy clothes again. It is the body-conscious mentality, and women are revealing every bulge. — Manolo Blahnik

That kind of woman who used to be there at the time is not here any longer. In 10 years, people disappear. But I fantasize still about those kinds of women, and that kind of life that doesn't really exist any longer. — Manolo Blahnik

I don't like very young women very much. Never did. — Manolo Blahnik

In London I feel free; nobody bothers anyone and everyone is free to express themselves. — Manolo Blahnik

I really connect with Victoria Beckham's desire to do something that she wants to do. Of the girls we've been talking about, she's one of the few that has this incredible sort of "I want to do it, and I want to do it well." — Manolo Blahnik

I'm loyal to my friends, but I have so few now.I force myself to see people when they're here. Or when I'm here. I don't live in England that much now in the sense that I spend time in factories. I'm such a factory man now. This is really what I enjoy doing. — Manolo Blahnik

I never thought that I would sell to young people, but now girls who are 14 and 15 buy my shoes. — Manolo Blahnik

I'm like an old vampire, so it's important to talk to young people. — Manolo Blahnik

I'm an old bag - I like old thing. — Manolo Blahnik

I hate to travel with stuff. — Manolo Blahnik

Trends don't interest me. — Manolo Blahnik

I'm going to do what I do, even more exaggerated. This is my attitude always. I don't betray myself at all. — Manolo Blahnik

The imprint of Miss Hepburn is absolutely, totally present. Like it or not, she will be the most important look of the twentieth century. — Manolo Blahnik

You realize how much fun we did have, with no money at all. We'd stay in peoples' homes in Tangiers. When you're young, you invite yourself. — Manolo Blahnik

I've never been tempted to do these hideous furniture shoes. — Manolo Blahnik

I'm relating to a period that doesn't exist anymore. — Manolo Blahnik

Alas, passion is conducive to certain other things because when you have too much passion and you have too much work, you possibly end up having black holes. The danger is too much passion. — Manolo Blahnik

I adore Jean-Louis Trintignant - even at 100 years old he's fabulous. — Manolo Blahnik

I'm very self-critical. — Manolo Blahnik

It's the only thing I really enjoy - so fresh, even now that I'm doing the new sampling. I'm dying to go to the factory, which is like nobody's idea of fun. But it's mine. — Manolo Blahnik

It was a different social structure. I'd go to [David] Bailey's for dinner at 10:30. There were always girls there and a house full of ... I don't know, anybody. Cecil Beaton, Diana Cooper ... And there I am sitting down with these creatures of the 20th century, and it was normal to us. — Manolo Blahnik

I don't consider myself a fashion designer. — Manolo Blahnik