Jimmy Choo XV - The Bite Magazine

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MOYETTE MARRETT REVIEWS A SELECTION OF
RECENTLY PUBLISHED DESIGNER BOOKS.
Jimmy Choo XV
F
by Tamara Mellon
rom the moment a pair of Jimmy
Choo stepped out on to the red
carpet, the luxurious footwear and
accessories brand, has been favoured by
Hollywood stars, pop divas, royalty, heads
of state and some of the world’s most
fashionable women, as well as coveted by
many more as objects of desire. To celebrate the brand’s fifteenth anniversary,
Jimmy Choo has produced a sumptuous
limited-edition coffee table book; Jimmy
Choo XV by Tamara Mellon, which focuses on the 15 most iconic shoes from the
company’s past and reflects on what has
made them so successful.
Jimmy Choo XV contains stunning im-
agery from leading fashion photographers
such as Mario Testino and Terry Richardson, editorial from the world’s top fashion
magazines, paparazzi shots from the red
carpet and original design studio sketches,
all wrapped up in a deluxe snakeskin presentation sleeve. The book includes reflections on celebrity icons, such as Rihanna
and the late Whitney Houston that have
helped define the brand. It highlights the
famous ‘feather’ shoe worn by Sarah Jessica Parker’s character, Carrie Bradshaw,
in ‘Sex and the City,’ the shoe that brought
Jimmy Choo onto every Fashionista’s radar. In an early episode, Carrie has a Cinderella moment when she laments, “I’ve
lost my Choo.”
While working as Accessories Editor at
British Vogue in the early 1990s,Tamara Mellon,
OBE, and Jimmy Choo founder, met Mr. Choo,
who used to hand-make women’s shoes at the
rate of twenty pairs a week at his workshop in
Hackney, east London. She then founded Jimmy Choo in 1996 with a £150,000 loan from
her father, Tom Yeardye, who co-founded the
Vidal Sassoon hair products empire.
In the preface, Tamara Mellon, who
stepped down as Chief Creative Officer from
the brand last year, following its takeover and
integration with Labelux, a private Germany
luxury goods group, speaks lovingly of her
relationship with Jimmy Choo. “Around the
office, we refer to the shoe styles as ‘She,’
endowing them with a personality, life and
story all of their own. ‘Glenys’ is attending an arts opening before she hops on the
Eurostar back to London. ‘Macy’ is headed
into hair and make-up before she hits
the step and repeat. ‘Fleur’ has a board
meeting this morning followed by lunch
with her banker,’’ she says. “Amongst the
thousands of shoes that have been created each has its own story. When they
are launched into the world, the women
that wear the shoes add their own stories.”
Jimmy Choo XV recounts memorable moments featuring actresses
such as Sandra Bullock, Kiera Knightley,
Hilary Swank and Helen Mirren walking the red carpet. It also focuses on
the brand’s use and love of exotic animal prints and provides examples of
how the design theme is used to convey female
power, glamour and sex appeal.
“Cinematic and music icons such as Catherine Deneuve, Anouk Aimée and Debbie
Harry are among the many muses I have in
my imagination when I’m creating my collections for Jimmy,” Tamara Mellon writes. “These
iconic beauties hold an allure that is as much
about their external style as their innate sense
of self-confidence. I look to modern icons as
well, and in business, I think of iconic women
such as Michelle Obama, Diane von Furstenberg, Tory Burch and Natalie Massenet, whose
ingenuity, cleverness and sense of humour set
them apart as role models for me and for my
daughter’s generation. The icons that I set out
to highlight in this book take their cue from the
women that inspire me in my life, but they are
the shoes themselves.”
Jimmy Choo: XV, published by Rizzoli, New
York, is priced at £60 and 100 percent of the
proceeds from sales of the book will be donated to The Jimmy Choo Foundation, a nonprofit charity that helps empower women by
enabling them to lead safer, healthier lives.