Manuel "Manolo" Blahnik Rodríguez CBE (/məˈnoʊloʊ ˈblɑːnɪk/; born 27 November 1942), is a Spanish fashion designer and founder of the eponymous high-end shoe brand.
I think Lucy Ferry, now Birley, is absolutely beautiful. She's a modern girl, but she moves beautifully. Amanda [Harlech] moves beautifully when she's not working. All those English leftover society girls.
I'm loyal to my friends, but I have so few now. I force myself to see people when they're here. Or when I'm here. I don't live in England that much now in the sense that I spend time in factories. I'm such a factory man now. This is really what I enjoy doing.
I'm totally twisted. Instead of, "Oh god, I don't have platforms - they won't like me," I was much more, "I'm doing what I'm doing, and if you don't want to buy it, then don't buy, but that's just what I'm gonna do. " It gave me strength. It worked for me.
I get more tired by travelling than anything.
I think I make shoes quite okay.
It was a different social structure. I'd go to [David] Bailey's for dinner at 10:30. There were always girls there and a house full of. . . I don't know, anybody. Cecil Beaton, Diana Cooper. . . And there I am sitting down with these creatures of the 20th century, and it was normal to us.
What is fashion? It's discipline. Discipline and a credo to do only the best, down to the smallest detail.
The only people that come to my mind in the last years are Lee McQueen and John Galliano. Truly, truly. . . How do I say? Full of ideas. Full of the smell. They just had this incredible passion for what they did.
I've never been tempted to do these hideous furniture shoes.
I adore Jean-Louis Trintignant - even at 100 years old he's fabulous.
You'd see extraordinary-looking people around in the '70s. It was so exciting! You'd have mad people, like Gerlinde Kostiff riding around on her bicycle with a huge hat. Everybody was doing things. I don't have any bad memories of that period.
I am not a movie star or a football player, I just do my thing.
I always love China, especially the old China.
Some people just use beautiful things to just shop or to have a tribal feeling - 'Oh, blah, blah, blah, I'm wearing Hermes; blah, blah, blah, I'm wearing Saint Laurent; blah-blah blah' - because it's like a need, a tribe, recognition: 'Ahh, my Rolex. ' But I run away from anything which is too recognizable - it's my nature.
The greatest luxury is being free.
I'm a doodler. It was my first job as a boy, and I still do it. At night I keep a block of paper and a pencil with a huge piece of string next to me. When I have an idea, I grab the string and just doodle.
When I was a boy I remember the women, how they dressed, how they behaved, what was important to them at the time. Like Lee Marvin and Gloria Grahame in The Big Heat.
Men tell me that I've saved their marriages. It costs them a fortune in shoes, but it's cheaper than a divorce. So I'm still useful, you see.
I don't even think about the word. But I do have certain things where I just go, "Aaaaahhh," irritatingly boring and insistent because I want it to look that way and I can do it - I don't even know if you'd call it passion or obsession. Obsession, possibly, but I really love what I do.
People walk differently in high heels. Your body sways to a different kind of tempo.