Blahnik is doubling down on direct-to-consumer channels and balancing the company’s global footprint, particularly in Asia. “This and next year we’re very much turning our heads to the East,” she declares. Founded in London in 1970, the brand (which previously had a boutique in the Elements mall in Kowloon) just unveiled a new stand-alone boutique in Hong Kong’s Lee Gardens One in March: within the year, a second store is promised in Pacific Place.

“In Asia, Hong Kong was where it all began for us in the 1990s, and it feels like a home. We needed to put our own arms around it in a direct way,” she says.

Read on for more on of the former architect’s path into the family business, and favourite pairs from her 100-pair shoe collection.

When did you know you wanted to take the reins at the brand?

I grew up in a shoebox, but I was passionate about making my own mark, which I did through architecture. It was in my mid-thirties when things collided … it was a big bang, where I [realised I] needed to understand what this is to me.

My uncle and mother entrusted me with a review of [the business] and it grew from there. I look back and we’ve come such a long way – in this building alone are 120 people. But none of it felt like a revolution, it was all a natural progression.

I brought skills from architecture, like the ability to draw what the future will look like. My first full day in the family business was flying Manolo’s drawings to the factory and developing the spring/summer 2010 collection. I knew if I could build a building, I could probably build a shoe. It was a baptism by fire, but I loved it.

How involved is your uncle in your work?

He leads the design, but he’s also omnipresent in everything we do, and he wants to know everything. That’s the beauty of working with family – you challenge them, more than if you were just professional colleagues. The result is always 10 times better.

What’s your earliest memory of him and his shoes?

When I was about eight, every weekend we’d go from London up to Bath. He was designing a collection, and it’s always been on the same A3 cartridge paper, with the same signs and pens. I sat on his lap and drew some shoes – or he might have done the outline for me, so I was colouring in.

Given Manolo Blahnik’s cultural capital, what’s your storytelling strategy?

At the same time, we don’t compromise in the product, the aesthetics. Manolo doesn’t believe in platforms – he did them in the 1970s when the moment was right, but we haven’t done them since. We haven’t leaned into commercial demands, like sneakers, and quite deliberately so, as you lose your point of view.

Do you think the stiletto is poised for a comeback?

It’s a swinging pendulum. During Covid I lived in socks and slippers and needed the ceremony of dressing – I had a takeaway Sunday roast in an evening gown. We swung so hard in one direction, it then swung back, and around April 2022 we started going maximalist on glamour. Now we’re levelling out, but I do believe come 2025, we’re going to see a baroque renaissance – it’s going to be floral prints and pom-poms, pearls and diamonds. I’m hoping for more is more.

What are your favourite pairs of Manolos?

The Maysale, to me, is the ultimate investment piece. I have probably 20 of them.

I also adore what we did for the opening of the store: we’ve reissued an archive shoe called Pitita. There’s a beautiful dragon-esque motif all around – it happens to be my husband and my stepchildren’s zodiacs. It’ll only be available in Hong Kong as an exclusive.