Madonna called him 'better than sex': Who is Manolo Blahnik?

Madonna is the head of those who think so. She was rocked when she told Vogue, "Manolo is better than sex," during her Evita years. Blahnik was the first man to appear on the cover of Vogue magazine in 1974. In 2003, his works were exhibited at the London Design Museum. This was also a first.

Manuel "Manolo" Blahnik Rodríguez CBE (born 27 November 1942) is a Spanish fashion designer and founder of the eponymous high-end shoe brand.

The designer, whose real name is Manuel “Manolo” Blahnik Rodríguez, was born in 1942 to a Czech father and a Spanish mother. He graduated from the University of Geneva in 1965 and studied art in Paris.

With the stiletto-style shoes he designed in the 1970s, he created the classic shoe style of the 21st century. It has boutiques in London, New York, Las Vegas, Dublin, Athens, Madrid, Istanbul, Dubai, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Stockholm. The most important feature of the shoes is that they are produced entirely by hand.

You may remember that Sarah Jessica Parker, who plays the role of Carrie Bradshaw in the TV series Sex and the City, said, "Take my Fendi purse, my ring, my watch, but don't touch my Manolos" in the scene where she meets the thief. Many of the shoes Parker wore were Blahnik.

Although many young designer shoe lovers turn their heads today, the love fire between us and Manolo never goes out. When I met Blahnik, a true shoe genius, he was more impressive than the shoes he had designed himself. Warm, friendly, polite, a true gentleman...

Blahnik's fashion adventure began in the 1970s. Blahnik, who returned to language and art education while studying law in Geneva, had no desire to be a shoe designer in those years and to lead an empire that sells 70,000 pairs of shoes a year. It all started when his friend Paloma Picasso introduced him to Diana Vreeland, editor of American Vogue, while he was studying set design in Paris. When he started exhibiting his vintage collection inspired by old films in the 70s in his first shop in London, the brand he created started to give the first signals that it would become a phenomenon. Blahnik, who managed to become the owner of one of the stores visited by famous names, became famous in the fashion industry as a designer whose shoes were praised in a short time.

The designer, who doesn't care about trends, always cares for his shoes to look elegant and elegant. It is impossible to see a platform-soled shoe or boot in his designs. Because he stays away from "rudeness" that he does not like women. He doesn't push the limits and takes his eyes off making her models look sexy. He finds it sexy that only the lines of two toes are visible in the shoe cut. He believes that the appearance of excess finger lines is vulgar.