Taking Manolo Blahnik to the next level
Manolo Blahnik’s Mary Jane pumps, Campari, made famous in “Sex and the City,” is more than 30 years old.
But its minimalist style and clean lines make it a classic, which means—company CEO Kristina Blahnik, the founder’s niece, reassures us—that the Campari will continue to be produced.
Due to fallen arches, I cannot wear heels. Instead, I invest in tried-and-true rubber shoes, which for decades was Nike Air Pegasus.
However, going against the adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” sneaker designs constantly shift, and to my disappointment, the newer Pegasus’ heels and toes do not fit well, even if the style purportedly is the same.
I have since ditched Nike in favor of Vionic, buying multiple pairs of the same style in case fashion rears its unsteady head again.
Thus, I applaud Kristina when she tells South China Morning Post’s Style in 2024: “It’s about being consistent … At the same time, we don’t compromise on the product, the aesthetics … We haven’t leaned into commercial demands, like sneakers, and quite deliberately so, as you lose your point of view.”
The Blahniks hail from Spain but moved to England when Kristina was a child. After school, she did homework above her uncle’s shop in London, while Manolo and his sister Evangeline (Kristina’s mother) worked downstairs. After finishing schoolwork, Kristina brushed the suede shoes on display, for a weekly pay of ten pence.
She fell in love with an envelope bag that cost 50 pounds, and saved her pocket money until she succeeded in buying it—foreshadowing her persistence in helming the company today.
Shoemaking was not the young girl’s passion—instead, art and mathematics propelled her to major in architecture at Cambridge and found her own company, which to this day, continues to design new spaces for Manolo Blahnik.
“One season my uncle was unable to visit the factory to handle shoe production matters, so I decided to temporarily put down my architectural work to assist him,” Kristina tells L’Officiel Magazine. “Later, I spent six or seven years to truly recognize my goals and ambitions, and I also believe that this is the arrangement of fate. As the second-generation sustenance of the brand, inheritance is very important to me. I am here to uphold the design and craftsmanship that our family insists on without compromise.”
In 2013, her mother stepped down as managing director, and Kristina became CEO.
At that time, Manolo Blahnik was only run by less than 10 people, despite its global fame. Today, it has more than 250 employees, with a swanky headquarters in London’s Mayfair district.
“Manolo Blahnik reported a loss for the first time in 2020, as demand for formal footwear weakened during the pandemic,” reports Financial Times, “[But] it rebounded strongly the following year. Under Kristina Blahnik’s leadership, the company reported its best-ever financial performance in 2022, with revenue up 69 percent … It won a decades-long intellectual property battle in China … and … signed a joint venture in Hong Kong … paving the way for expansion in Asia.”
Kristina credits her fresh perspective on managing the family business. “If you go into a family business too early, you don’t necessarily have that opportunity to form your own opinions,” she tells Financial Times. “If I joined it [early], I would have done it how they did it rather than coming in and going ‘I really respect how you are doing this, but I think there might be a different way.’”
For instance, Kristina bolstered the company’s e-commerce platforms, selling more products directly to customers.
Financial independence is sacred for the company, which never takes out loans. “We … have the autonomy to make decisions,” she tells L’Officiel. “Because [the] only … my uncle and my mother are shareholders … we have never invested or taken out loans. As the brand has always been independently developed, we … do not compete with other groups.”
“The first generation [has] the dream,” she says. “My role is making sure I create the structures around it [to] exist beyond my lifetime, beyond all of our lifetimes.” INQ
Queena N. Lee-Chua is on the Board of Directors of Ateneo’s Family Business Center. Get her print book “All in the Family Business” at Lazada or Shopee, or e-book at Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks. Contact the author at blessbook.chua@gmail.com.
