Take me higher: Meet master shoe designer Giuseppe Zanotti
Shoemaker to the rich and famous Giuseppe Zanotti has won women's hearts the world over. Now he's going after the men, writes Gemma Soames
Never underestimate the power of a shoe, declares Italian designer Giuseppe Zanotti. "Women feel a vibration from them, they feel a power. They feel sexy, cool, angry, wow. They can change your body," he says. "When you walk, they make you strong and aggressive, like a panther. All girls have an animal inside them, and with heels, I'm like a psychologist, I can discover the panther inside a woman and then, boosh! I can give her power."
Boosh, indeed, and clearly plenty of it, judging by the number of women who pounce on new collections of Zanottis, year after year, in search of that extra bit of added oomph.
Zanotti, who was in town last week for the opening of his revamped store in IFC Mall, burst onto the scene nearly 20 years ago. His bejewelled sandals and sky-high boots marked him as a man who delivered the wow factor.
"In that time, in the 1990s, there was a very Japanese influence on fashion," he says. "Everyone wanted to cover their bodies and their sensuality. I don't know why. My idea was to relaunch women's beauty, to put jewels on their feet."
Zanotti's shoes may look like sparkly confections, but he's a shrewd businessman who put the hours in learning his craft before striking out on his own.
"The technical part of designing shoes is 85 per cent," he says. "If you do not understand the technical side of shoes, you can't do it. Shoes are a universe, with all the different leathers, the materials - silk, velvet, napa, suede, kid. It's a huge universe and you have to understand your vocabulary first, then you need to work with a factory to understand all the secrets, and then, if you're lucky and you have passion, you can start your own story."