You know you’ve made it as a designer when one of the biggest luxury conglomerates in the world comes calling. But for British shoe designer Nicholas Kirkwood, who sold a majority stake in his namesake label to LVMH last year, it’s just a starting point.
“I don’t think I can say I’ve made it yet,” says the soft-spoken 34-year-old, who was recently in Dubai to meet some of his well-heeled clients. “There’s still a lot of work to do. We’re still at the beginning.”
Kirkwood launched his eponymous label in 2005, after training under the iconic milliner Philip Treacy for five years. His sculptural take on shoes and his extravagant creations quickly made him the go-to guy for fashion designers. Soon, his designs were adorning the feet of many women — and as of last year, men — around the world.
“I think I came at the right time,” says Kirkwood, hesitant to take credit for his success. “When I started off, designers were looking for something new. Shoes, until that time, were an afterthought to a collection. But designers were starting to look at them as an important element of their collection.
“Also, Sex & the City just ended. And that show really put shoes on the map.”
Kirkwood, a Fine Arts student at the renowned Central Saint Martins in London, was inspired to become a shoe designer after he saw the works of Manolo Blahnik, a designer coveted by Carrie Bradshaw, the iconic character played by Sarah Jessica Parker in the hit TV series. Incidentally, Parker, who is heading to Dubai on December 7 to launch her shoe line, is herself a fan of Kirkwood.
“A lot of my friends were going into ready-to-wear but I’d always been interested in architecture and product design,” Kirkwood says. “After I saw Manolo Blahnik’s shoes, I really started looking at shoes as an object, they were beautiful objects. I just felt everybody was copying him. And I thought maybe if I could make things my own way, and make my own mark, I could do something with it.”
And he did. Kirkwood’s shoes now retail at 150 stores across the world, including Level Shoe District in Dubai, and at flagship stores in London, New York and Las Vegas. He’s won various awards, including the British Fashion Award’s Accessories Designer of the Year, twice.
The frenetic pace of his label’s growth has also taught him many things, like how to become a better businessman.
“As a young designer these days, you kind of have to be [good in business],” he says. “10 or 15 years ago, you could just be the creative and rely purely on that. But the speed of collections have changed and the new crop of designers have to be good at so many things, especially if you are just starting out.”
His creative process has evolved, but not changed.
“When my collection was smaller, I designed each shoe individually around a certain aesthetic. I’d sit on a blank piece of paper and doodle. But as the collections grew in size and frequency, that [way of working] is not always practical,” he says.
“Now I have an assistant and a team doing development and graphics. Of course, there’s always a theme to a collection and you have mini stories within that bigger story. Sometimes you start off with these and it becomes something else completely after.”
Despite his unusual designs, comfort is always an important element, he adds.
“When I design a shoe, I design how I want it to be and then we see how to make it comfortable. It doesn’t make sense to make something that’s beautiful only on the shelves or something you want to kick off after half an hour.”
Kirkwood launched a men’s line in January last year.
“It’s still early days and our collection is tiny. But the men’s market has changed so much [since I began] and guys are more open to experimentation. I mean, think about it, sneakers have become a real category.”
Although he’s been embedded in the fashion world, a ready-to-wear line is, for now, out of the question, he says.
“I’d like to go into bags though, I think they are a naturally extension of what I do... And maybe sunglasses,” he says. “But I don’t want to venture out too much, yet.”