Manolo Blahnik on Julia Fox’s LaQuan Smith Runway Debut: ‘Simply Divine’
Shannon Adducci
Style Director
If there is anything that Manolo Blahnik has proven in his more than 50-year career, it’s that he can capture the zeitgeist with his shoes. From halcyon days on Church Street in London’s Chelsea neighborhood and heady nights at Studio 54 to brushes with ’80s power women, a TV character’s shoe obsession and Rihanna alike, the designer knows how to seize the moment.
Which is why it shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that the designer’s shoes also made a cameo appearance not only on the runway at LaQuan Smith’s fall ’22 runway show Monday at New York Fashion Week — but also on the heels of the woman of the moment, Julia Fox.
“A powerful opening, simply divine,” Blahnik told FN after the show. Of Fox, he added, “She looks wonderful and it’s great to see New York Fashion Week back in full swing.”
Watch on FN
For Smith’s fall ’22 collection, Blahnik loaned the New York designer a series of BB pumps and Pascalarehi boots. It was the former — in white — that showed up on Fox as she strutted down the parquet wood runway in a black cutout evening gown.
The show was styled by Mel Ottenberg, the “Interview” magazine editor-in-chief who has nabbed some of Fox’s most candid quotes as of late. The fashion editor also happened to be Rihanna’s stylist when the star was working on her blockbuster collaboration in Blahnik back in 2017. Ottenberg referred to Blahnik as his “shoe dad” when recapping the show on social media the day after.
“Galpal Julia Fox opening LaQuan Smith last night, styled by me,” Ottenberg wrote in an Instagram caption showing the actress backstage before the show. “Special thanks to the great Patricia Von Musulin and shoe dad Manolo Blahnik.”
