S17 E04: Kristina Blahnik, CEO of Manolo Blahnik

[Music] You're listening to the luxury item, the podcast on the business of luxury and the people and companies that are shaping the future of the luxury industry. Here's your host, Scott Kerr. [Music] If you know fashion, you know the name. Manolo Blanick isn't just a brand. It's an instant symbol of status, elegance, craftsmanship and creative excellence. Manolo Blanick founded his eponymous label in 1971 and soon cemented himself as one of the most esteemed shoe designers in the world. Blanick's notoriety reached an extraordinary level and solidified his place in the cultural landscape, primarily through the television series Sex and the City, and it was into an obsession using them as a recurring plot device for desire and independence. My guest on the luxury item is Christina Blanick, Chief Executive Officer of Manolo Blanick, and niece of founder Manolo Blanick. Since taking the reins of the label in 2013, Christina has kept the magic and artistry of the brand alive, while guiding it into a modern digital world. With a background in architecture, Christina brings a thoughtful, almost structural approach to creativity, one that has helped the brand grow globally while remaining authentic and family-led. Under her leadership, Manolo Blanick has expanded its presence worldwide, embracing digital transformations, sustainability and storytelling, all while keeping its artisanal core intact. Welcome to the luxury item, Christina. Hello, Scott. Lovely to spend some time with you. Same here. Thank you so much for joining me. So before we move forward on this, I want to go backwards, if you will. You effectively grew up in the shoe world with the old church street shop in London, where your uncle, Manolo, opened in the early 1970s with your mother, Ravangilina. You said in interviews, it was a central part of your childhood. Manolo has said in interviews that he owes his success to London, citing the capital as his educating ground. Even though your path started in the architecture world, was spending time in the London boutique at an early age, your educating ground in some ways? Absolutely. I mean, I very much did grow up from the age of six when we moved to London from my mother to support my uncle and really be the operational lead for, you know, to balance his creative mind. I spent every single afternoon there. It was after school, I'd come home with my satchel and I'd either be in the shop. If there was no customers or I'd be upstairs in the teeny tiny global head office, which was five square meters until the late 90s. And it was home. It was our living room. It's where we lived and watching my uncle and my mother unquestioningly, as you don't, as a child, it's just your life. You don't have any other reference points. What was now looking back was really the beginnings of me understanding what my journey might be and how I want to present myself in the world of shoes and what world of monologue planning. I'd rolling up sleeves and being part of every single bit of the business. My mother was selling the shoes. She was liaising with the press. So as my uncle, he was obviously designing. But being on the shop floor is to this day still my favorite, my uncle's favorite place. But it was cleaning, it was doing the accounts, it was everything. It was the full 360 of running a small business at the time. And then it was growing in America, it only just opened in the early 80s. Yes, it's the work ethic, the curiosity that I have observed in both of them, which I think curiosity allows you to be limitless in many ways. Because neither of them had formally studied what they ended up doing. My uncle did not formally study footwear design or footwear making manufacturing. And my uncle, my own mother didn't study business. And there they were running the business that, you know, I have the privilege now to be holding and guarding into the future. So join the family business, I think it was in 2009 to assist your uncle and at first trained as an architect, you worked in the ad industry for about 17 years. But if you look at it, both architects and shoe designers work as structural problem solvers, how did those architect skills sets and systems thinking help you frame the long horizon vision of the brand when you became the CEO. That's the best formulation of a question I've had in a long time. I think there are, of course, the literal transferable skills. The architecture world is of course about form and function, which is what the shoe is. It's about form and function. And yes, those were the skills that I gave me the confidence in 2009. And you know, even though that wasn't the beginning of my journey at Manolo Blanick, I always was helping in the summer holiday. So I was doing something at some point in all the years leading up to that. But in 2009 was the very first time that my uncle could not go to the factories for a family reason. And I said to him, if I can build a building, I can build a shoe. I'd been to the factories once before when I was at the architectural association doing one of my essays. And I really wanted to understand manufacturing and craftsmanship and my mother for a generously took me there and I did a whole project around shoe making at the time. So I had a sense of it from as an observer. And of course, I'd grown up watching it and hearing about it and the language and the detailing. But of course, on a flight in June 2009, I was very green to this with a role of drawings that my uncle had already done for collection because he has still to this day hand draws everything. And when I'm designing shoes for the collections, I also only only design those and develop those with a pencil and paper. And landed in sat in front of three pattern cutters from one of our largest factories. And we all looked at each other and were all slightly terrified. But I did have the confidence that I did understand construction, structure. I knew I was at the very beginning of a lifelong journey of learning and I still am learning to this day about all technical aspects of the craft of shoe making. But that was, I felt the confidence practically to do it. But I always come back to there is something much greater that I have bought and transferred as an architect to the skill, you know, a skill wise to this family business. And that is the ability to visualize the future and the skill of documenting that, whether it's through drawings, whether it's through words, whether it's through presentations, how that will look at the end of the journey, what that vision will look like and how to get there. So the specifications of the journey, the steps that need to be taken, the road maps. And I think that's the skill that I to this day value the most. And I would say I leverage the most within the framework of the world of monologlantic. And from 2009, I always knew that we wanted to really be the last hands that hold our little babies until they go to their forever homes. And of course, you know, that wasn't that wasn't the structure of fashion houses predominantly at the time. Certainly not in the late 90s. And it was really in the early 2000s that I've observed fashion houses with the emergence of technology. Starting to become much more directly operated. And I always dreamed that we will be able to one do that directly operate a significant portion of our of our journey in our business and our the lives of our of our shoes and also how do we transcend time in terms of monologlantic. What does it mean? What does it mean for future generations? Not just as a shoe designer or a creative or an artist or a cultural intellect, but giving back and the foundation. I think it's probably the second pillar that was key and has been something in my vocabulary for over a decade. And finally the preservation of the archives. And the reason that was so important to me was because in 1999 I had finished the architectural association. I finished my architecture diploma. I took three months out and photographed the whole archive. It had never been documented. And we do have a very comprehensive archive that's been protected by my mother to make sure that it is there beyond all of our lifetimes. and documenting that and creating something that became accessible to others the world was a really important part and you know we're on we were very privileged to start that journey for our 50th and so those are the three things that I had visualised when I joined and in the years that you know that that came what that led to me being CEO and those are the three projects that I think will continue to be my passions and keep evolving and I need to make sure that I bring people on the journey with me to be as passionate as I am about it and when you joined it was still a small tally controlled mostly wholesale driven luxury shoehouse relatively underbuilt in retail and infrastructure compared to you know compared with its enormous cultural fame at the time and it was independent controlled by the family rather than a conglomerate did being an independent family business with minimal external professionalised management noise if you will keep the company on a more conservative craftsmanship craftsmanship first growth path. I think there are multiple facets to that question. I think at the time of me joining as I just mentioned it was it was a slightly different world. We weren't I would say we weren't under we weren't underbuilt as as a global footprint. It just wasn't built by us directly. We have we have and had some amazing franchise partnerships across the world. So Manolo was in very select countries with very select partners as franchises and we also have a very select group of wholesale accounts that we prefer to refer to as commercial partners because I think wholesale is a misunderstanding of the importance of keeping connection. It just feels like you're giving it away and that's the end of the journey. I think commercial partnership is more important. It's more valuable as a concept but I don't think you know I think we were already in some of the best cities and some of the best locations in the world. I would say since I joined our point of sales have actually decreased because of strategic decisions to rationalise our our commercial partner network our business to business network. But what was what as you as you rightly point out it was it was one store we had one store run by Manolo Blanick and that was in old church street and still is in old church street and it became an incredibly important part of that same journey that that I was visualising was it was to grow that and plan was initially to go to about 50% of our revenue to be directly operated and then the remaining 50% to be with the best of the best partners and that isn't about growth and it isn't about commercial success. It's about the ununderstanding appreciation of values and value alignment and you know the celebration of of craft and creativity and I I fear that there is sometimes an erosion of creativity and favour of commerciality and that is absolutely the opposite of what we will always fight for and you know we are there for creativity and artistry and I think for that to be the focus you can't allow yourself to become too big because you need to be able to inhale and exhale and I think as soon as you start focusing on maximising your business you become brittle around the edges and you know if there are you know challenges that are unexpected you you can't inhale and exhale so it was about narrow foundations that go deeper and deeper allowing for greatest ability in the medium and very very long term. After a very strong post-COVID rebound in 2022, 2023 and 2024 were more challenging years for the brand and like many luxury brands Manolo was facing macro headwinds and an overall global luxury slowdown you said yeah 2024 was a year of bold transformation and meaningful investment you double down on direct to consumer reduced wholesale partners and invested heavily in new stores. What was the thinking behind the reset year of reshaping the model and how did it set the course for rebuilding and accelerating growth? I'm going to challenge the word challenge. We didn't see it as challenging years for us they were actually very intentional and strategic years of reducing the scale of our business and very much aligned with the vision of working with the best of the best business to business partners with value alignment as well as growing our direct to consumer platform and those as and in variable we also have to mention within direct to consumer e-commerce the world is still evolving and driving even even further into the digital realm. So I wouldn't say the years were challenging they were deliberate and we knew what we were doing and we held you know we held to that journey with conviction against the headwinds as well we could have easily either decelerated or paused the shape shifting that we had planned and were implementing but we felt that it would be it would be a disservice to the ultimate long-term plan which is for it to be considered and curated and you know dare I say the word luxurious experience which is about experience. I think if you over a sort and if you overexpose it doesn't become that experience that creates joy and memories and and that was really important to us so we we knew we were going to be downsizing the business over a three-year period by about 20% of course we then have the compounded effect of you know the economic downturn post-22 but we always refer to 2022 as an anomaly it is something that should ever be referred to as equally of course 2020 we all know we don't refer to it but you can't refer to 22 as a normal year because there was so much pent-up glamour of course the glamour being the operative word in the world really residing that people just needed to go out they needed that ceremony and you know we all as an industry benefited enormously from that moment and celebrated in with with equal energy so you know 23 and 24 more real years and 25 will be around the same mark again so we feel we've been very stable in the last three years and of course have high hopes for the years to come even with the challenges I think diversification both in terms of channels and in terms of territories has been a really important a really important factor that we feel gives us the the ability to weather storms ahead you've repeatedly said that craftsmanship is at the heart of everything you do and describe the Italian factory outside Milan as a family of artisans some of whom have worked with Manolo for over 40 years and that there's this secret language between designers and makers there what does that look like and practice on a typical Tuesday morning in the factory goodness I mean to be honest I wish I was a flower in the wall every Tuesday I don't get to go as often as I would love to but it's it's it's a work visiting the factory is something that is an absolute joy for Manolo it is his happy place and the reason for that is because the hands that make the shoes are the magicians Manolo is the creator and then you have the hands that make the shoes and you know on a on a Tuesday it is it's a very very structured process and you know it is it's it's a it's a the journey of the shoes from the materials being pulled from the but the material saw and I'm I'm immediately thinking about our own factory in in Lombardy which he which is our largest factory in one of our oldest factories and which we acquired in 2019 from a second generation family and you know and it wasn't about an acquisition it was about coming together of two two families and you know so I'm visualising what that is you know it's the selection it's the pulling of the materials from these beautifully organized shelves it's then taking it and they start their journey in little baskets and you know they go they get the. the materials get cut into the patterns of the shoes, then the stitching, and then it goes into this beautiful journey, which you can actually see in our Monolabrani archives. We added a room in 2023 called the Craft Room. So the archives is actually the 2021-50th anniversary celebration of Monolabrani. We couldn't celebrate, so we brought forward the dream of the archives being available to the world, and it's designed in a way that rooms can be added year-on-year, and in 2023 we added the Craft Room, and in there it takes you through every step of the journey of a shoe on a shoes day, or on a Wednesday, or on a Thursday, and then of course also the journey of how they are designed and develop pre-the-production phase. So it's a dynamic environment that is very organised, so it's the perfect harmony of left and right brain in the factories, and equally in recent years we're very invested in not just our factory, but all of our supply chain being really considered in their responsibility and the impact of what they are doing, and that is a constant conversation that will also be happening on a shoes day, as well as community culture and ensuring that our teams are happy and have voices in everything that we do, and that's equally something that will be happening on a shoes day. Which kind of leads into my next question thought, there's been a clear evidence over the last couple of years of growing consumer disillusionment with luxury brands, especially among aspirational buyers and younger audiences who feel brands aren't living up to their value proposition. Many also feel price hikes aren't matching the brands' improvements in quality, innovation, or service. In response, we're seeing more luxury brands are putting their factories, workshops, and artisans at the centre of the story. While it's always been a core plank of Manolo's story, will you be putting your factories even more in front of house? To be honest with you, I wish I could open the doors to the factories for people to visit and to really learn. It's a beautiful craft, and it is a craft that is struggling to engage younger generations and next generations of craftsmen and craftswomen. In fact, it's one of the consistent feedbacks from our general supply chain as how are we engaging in that community, that next generation. So yes, absolutely. Our artisans have always been a very, very important part of our communication, our storytelling, and our transparency. Even more so as a result of the craft of the craft room that we added, and that is accessible to the world at any time, 24 hours. So please go and have a look at it if you haven't already. I would love to open the doors for next generation. We already do to a certain degree by inviting students to come and explore the art of shoe making in our world. And if we can also bring people that invest in our shoes and consumers or just community into the factory to appreciate what it goes into a shoe, it's got over a hundred steps. Just over a hundred times the elements are handled. There are over 30 elements in a basic style. Bringing those together into one object, it takes a huge number of hours, people, and elements. And I think it's a really important part of understanding why our product in particular is positioned where it is. It's with very, very conscious that we need to be very honest and fair about where we position it in terms of pricing our products. We don't ever want to price something purely for the purpose of commercial gain. And again, that brings me back to commerciality absolutely not being part of our language. It is a byproduct of all the other vocabulary that we have in terms of quality, comfort, creativity, artisanry, beauty, proportions. So our factories of which there are only a handful and one that we own directly are and always will be the beating heart of the journey. They are the ones that bring Manolo's dreams to life. And they are the most important people in terms of the realization of the shoes into who they are and what they are. At a category level, a lot of Gen Z is more ambivalent about traditional luxury, experimenting with replicas and seeing logos more as aesthetic tools, which can blunt the aura around any legacy house, including Manolo. The brand probably still has that pop culture, Keshay and craft credibility among younger, fashion savvy audiences. How are you actively courting Gen Z or more how are you protecting the inside aura the brand already has with younger, fashion people without turning it into a hype brand? I've already talked about commerciality. I think commerciality can kill the magic. But I think the other driver behind that is standing firm to our values and our vision and my own cause values and my own cause vision. And not actually being part of the fashion machine. I wouldn't say we are a fashion brand. We are a house that strives to make beautiful objects that happen to be shoes and therefore also need to be made with incredible skill and be the most comfortable things that they can be. So not focusing on being something that's an investment piece that is timeless is much more important than trying to chase a trend. And we almost go the opposite direction if there is a trend. And what makes me happy is when I see someone who has owned a pair of shoes for 20 years and still enjoys them to this day because you can't identify when it was. You can possibly identify some Manolo Blanick but you wouldn't say, oh that's Manolo Blanick spring summer 19. I, oh dear, that's not really on trend anymore because they are timeless. They are not locked into a moment. And that also makes me and makes us all as a team feel comfortable and content that what we are producing is not just there for the sake of consumption. It's there has longevity. It stands the test of time, it's investment piece and it's something you can keep wearing. And you know in terms of talking to Gen Z, there's we really, we really value intergenerational introductions and we see so, so many of them. You know, I was in an event in New York only last year where there was a lady there who was wearing her grandmother's Manolo Blanick's. And another lady who unfortunately wasn't the same size as her mother but had her mother's collection. You know, so that intergeneration of course, sharing of shoes, it's a little bit more challenging because of the sizing but you know sometimes it does fit perfectly. But also it's the it's the it's the first trip to Manolo's you know to celebrate a graduation first job either with someone or for yourself. We've got so many first customers that come with their aunt, their uncle, their mother, their father, you know, whoever it is and are introduced that way. And that is one avenue. Then of course we have many people that have learned to know Manolo as you know through Candice Bushnell's Burgh, Sex and the City, in particular in in the sphere of the the wedding. And finally engaging with the next generation both on an educational front and you know opening the door to our world to 13, 14 year olds through a wonderful British fashion council initiative called the Saturday Club. We have a scholarship at the University of Arts London, the Manolo-Banick scholarship that is not just footwear, it's it each year it changes, it's craft and just having that conversation with the next generation more on a you know developmental growth curation. curiosity intellect is the way that we approach talking to younger generations or the next generation coming through. - I wanna switch gears a little bit. I wanna talk about the IP case in China, if it's okay. From more than 20 years, Manolo Blanick was blocked from using its own name in China because of a local businessman had registered the market first, effectively shutting the brand out of the mainland market. Despite its global fame, you only finally won the case in 2022, which meant you lost two decades in the fastest growing luxury market and a late catch-up entry compared with some of your competitive brands. So during those lost decades, internally, did you see this as an existential threat or a constraint you had to design around? - I'd say it's neither. I would say we have even to this day not entered every territory and every market. I think probably had we not had the challenge of the trademark journey that we were on, we would have opened earlier in China, but equally when we finally were able to consider how we might open in China, it was the world, the China's structure had changed in terms of trading and we were able to open right from the outset as directly as a wholly foreign-owned enterprise, which we wouldn't have been able to do 20 or even 10 years ago. So I look at it as, I think we all do, as we might have done it differently, had the situation been different, but actually it was the right moment for us to enter. And I don't think we're playing catch up because we don't really compare ourselves to anybody else. I think we're just on our own very quiet, very gentle journey in China, having our first store in Shanghai, this early this year having opened in Beijing, having online, it's very small and we don't have huge ambitious plans. We just want it to grow organically and organic growth has been, is probably pinth the number one strategy that my uncle and my mother have had for over 50 years. It's just, you have to let it grow slowly and only do something when you can afford to do it and don't take too many risks. So we're very risk-adverse and the journey that we're on in China is a very slow one. It's a very considered one. And every time we introduce someone else to our world and to our story, it's a success day. - You've done a handful of interesting collaborations and capsules in the past couple of years. We've seen you do everything from a museum capsule with the sponsorship of the V&A's "Mariant" when it's style show and London to fashion gaming partnerships and now a big designer collaboration with Balenciaga for the fall 2026 collection. How do these diverse collaborations align with the bigger brand narrative? - There is no giant master collaboration plan. In some ways what I was alluding to in the previous answer is the wheels, there is an element of celebrating serendipitous opportunities. And I can, without any exception, say that every single collaboration that we have done in the last probably 55 years have come as a result of moments of connection. And alignment, I mean, to the most recent one that's going to come in stores at Balenciaga exclusively in May, the Balenciaga is a conversation we've been having for many, many years. And it just felt like the right time for Manolo to come together, Pierre Paolo, and celebrate Cristoal. And I think Cristoal Balenciaga is one of them, one of the people I think Manolo to this day would still love to sit at a table and have a conversation with. The Marianne Twinnett, it was just a question of whether we would want to, you know, loan shoes for it. And as soon as we heard about it, and I, you know, I was, it became something that was, it was a must. We needed to be the exclusive sponsors of Marianne Twinnett because it's the closest that I think Manolo will ever come to Marianne Twinnett herself and those two names to be together is, is, it's incredibly, it's a very proud moment for me. And it's, it's something that will be a highlight of my whole life because I know how much he adores, and, you know, adored and still adores Marianne Twinnett. - Right. - And I, he wished he had met her as well. And, you know, it's 20 years this year for, I mean, Sophia Coppola's Marianne Twinnett fell. And, you know, I think the timing was perfect and it was just such a beautiful exhibition. It was, it was breathtaking. I, I didn't, deliberate didn't get involved with any aspect of it because I just wanted to experience it in its, in its purest, complete form and it was magnificent. And it's opening in, in Japan next, I think. So if you, if you get an opportunity, you haven't seen it do go, it is, it's breathtaking. - Yeah, it looks amazing. - I mean, I can, I can keep going. - I mean, you've got the Rihanna collaboration, you've got the Birkenstock collaboration. All these came not by plan, but they came through life and journey. - It just felt organically right for you. - Yes. - Absolutely. - In 2021, to celebrate the brand's 50th anniversary in Oloblanic introduced a virtual archive on its website that lets anyone explore 50 years of his shoes, sketches, inspirations and craft through a series of themed digital rooms. You originally imagined a physical archive building, but the pandemic pushed you toward this modular digital library. What do you think the digital first approach unlocks strategically that a traditional museum style archive might not have? - I'm gonna start with, there will be a physical space. It is another one of these lifetime objectives that I have. So I think the digital and the physical worlds will coexist. Initially, the digital world was much, much further beyond the physical space that we had planned. And bringing that forward by probably 15, 20 years in 2021 was the right thing to do because there was no other way of celebrating the 50th. Yes, we could have done an event, but we couldn't because of COVID. But actually, on reflection, investing in something that was giving the world access to my uncle, who is an unbelievable creative talent in giving the world access to his story and his inspirations and his reference points and his shoes felt and still remains, a huge, just a moment of achievement, of achieving a dream that was so far down the line. I think the digital realm is ever evolving. The vision was always to be introducing AR and VR in that world because of course, a museum is only most likely to be in one location and that means travel. And whilst travel has become so accessible for so many people in the world, it's also quite delicate as it isn't something we should have an expectation of having. And being able to access the archives and the stories and the inspirations anywhere in the world at any point in time, and that becoming more and more real as technology develops is really what transcends all of our lifetimes. Manoele Blanick in 500 years will probably be making shoes, but I am hoping that by evolving and investing in resets and development of this little world that we've created and evolving that in the digital realm means that it will still exist as a reference point of creativity and hopefully also reference point of key cultural moments in our history and the history of art and history of film and history of literature, history of architecture. So looking through the telescope, when you project 10 to 15 years out, what would have to be true culturally, commercially and creatively, for you to feel that you succeeded in carrying the Blanick legacy in its purest form with evolution. Preserving the starting point of what my uncle initially and then with alongside my mother built, which is a world where creativity and craftsmanship come first always. What objects that is is hopefully in 10 to 15 years, still shoes in 150 years might not be, it might be something. But it's about, I want everyone to still understand in 10, 15 years and what we are about elegance, we are about whimsical, fun, reinterpretations of history, looking at celebration of hand-made craft, the art of the drawing, the art of material, the art of colour, having variety and change and evolving ideas and aesthetics. Those are, and community, that heartfelt community around having a space of where culture is key, well-being is key. Also the foundation and that evolving, the foundation pillars are next generation, which I've already talked a bit about, animal welfare, which is of course absolutely essential in our world because we use the by-product of the food industry for our shoes and mental health and well-being as well as overarching humanitarian aid. For that still to be helping people and animals and education in the future is, that is success and having a happy team, that is success. Happy customers with happy feet that are comfortable, making people smile, that's success, and whatever form that is. So, Christina, my final question is the luxury item question which I ask all my guess. So if you were stranded on a deserted island and you could only have one single luxury item with you, what would that luxury item be? It can't be any form of air or water transportation to get you off that island or anything that requires mobile service so you can call somebody to get you off that island. It's just you on this lonely island all by yourself, nobody's around just lots of ocean around you and sand and maybe some palm trees, but you have one single luxury item with you. What would that one luxury item be? Oh, and it's got to be inanimate. It's however you interpret it. Oh, but that was so many, that's not fair. I mean, probably my family, I'm going to put that in one, that would be, but- You're going to bundle it, we'll bundle it. Bundle is one, I mean, but that's an easy one. In many ways, I would be surprised if not everyone on the planet answers it that way. I'm going to go with inanimate and I'm going to go with SPF 50 and my second one will be Carmex and my third one will be a Smites and Note, but with a pen to be able to write and sketch. Let's bundle those three. It's a three-in-one sale. It is a three-day. SPF 50 Carmex and Smites and with a pen. Christina Blanick, CEO of Manalo Blanick, thank you so much for joining me on the luxury item. Thank you so much. What a fun, fun moment of time with you. That's it for this episode of the luxury item podcast. Thank you so much for listening. If you found this useful and entertaining, I would be really grateful if you can share it with a friend or colleague. I would love it if you subscribe so you never miss an episode. And while you're there, be sure to rate and review us on Apple podcasts. It really helps other listeners find us. The luxury item podcast is a production of Silver Tone Consulting. I'm your host Scott Kerr. Until next time.