What defines great style to you?
Great style is something you fully embody. You can be amazingly dressed, but if you’re not completely embracing it and confident, it doesn’t work. You can look incredible in pieces from a thrift shop or market. From very early on, I’ve been at ease with my own style, dressing up with my friends to go out clubbing all night long. It was part of our lifestyle. Great style is a mix of confidence and being daring.
Who is your style icon?
Prince Joachim-Napoleon Murat [Marshal of the Empire during Napoleon’s reign], who used to ride his horse during battles dressed in a panther cape and an ostrich-feathered tricorn hat.
In the 80s, you stopped designing shoes to work as a landscape gardener. What did you learn from that brief career change?
It taught me about patience – which also became the exact reason why I quit landscaping to go back to shoe design. But over the years, I really value this experience for that – and, in fact, flowers, plants, etc., are part of my inspirations. I like the way flowers combine colours and textures. For example, I immediately see in a pansy a dark and intense velvet. Right now, under my eyes, I have an electric pink flower (a sort of daisy) next to a very blue silvery succulent, which is a type of cactus, and it looks great. I've already incorporated that colour combination into my next collection.
If you had to break your life into phases, what would they be? How would you characterise them?
A very happy and loving childhood, flamboyant teenage years, some years waiting for plants to grow for my clients, a very lucky and fortunate company start, and years full of memorable encounters, new culture discoveries, and thousands of types of shoes designed, from high heels, to flats, to sandals and men’s shoes.