If the shoe fits.
Jimmy Choo’s Sandra Choi has partnered with Mugler’s Casey Cadwallader on a footwear collaboration for spring.
“Casey is shoe-obsessed, I found my soulmate,” said Choi of the synergy between the two. “We’re both creators and we’re both guardians of our brands — that’s a responsibility but also a challenge. How do we stir things up? To make something new, but at the same time respect what they are supposed to be. I think that meeting point between the two heritages and our own points of view is what is super interesting.”
The duo started by taking a look back at archives from the ’90s and 2000s. “That was such a great experience for me because it was a walk down memory lane and going back on ourselves, but through someone else’s perspective,” Choi said.
“I knew that Casey had, himself, made some amazing shoes,” she continued. “I had no idea Mugler didn’t commercialize them. And that was our first conversation, of keeping the essence of amazing sculpted shoes, but ones that can become real. So that was really the starting point. And when we got into the conversation, I realized how obsessed Casey is with shoes.”
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“He was a true kindred spirit,” she said. “And we each wanted to push, to exaggerate, to make the collaboration more.”
The result is an assortment of slick and feminine shapes with a nod to futurism, including a sock boot in both ankle and knee height with sheer panels of fabric; a sock pump with crystal details; a knee-high sandal pump with layers of chain cascading down the leg, and two pump styles, including one with a crystal ball hardware at the toe.
“Casey was so specific about these clean lines and those tiny straps, which we made even skinnier than we normally make,” Choi said of the shoe styles. “There are so many little things where it’s a bit more extreme. We pushed everything to the limit.”
While the two created the collection remotely — with many video calls and WhatsApp messages — Choi said when they finally met in person for the first time, “it was like meeting an old friend.”
The collaboration debuts with a campaign shot by Harley Weir that uses dynamic movement to bring the collaboration to life, meant to encapsulate the empowerment of women, which is integral to the DNA of both brands.
“I think it’s a celebration of the female form, using femininity to inspire and inform a being. We want to celebrate strength, the essence, the idea of being seen, being noticed, stepping forward. But it’s also about being comfortable in your own skin,” Choi explained of the collection and both brands’ DNA.
Styles range in price from $1,050 for the strap pump to $3,995 for the knee-high sandal in all gold. The collaboration debuts Wednesday at Jimmy Choo stores and its e-commerce, as well as retailers like Bergdorf Goodman, The Webster, Fwrd, Ssense, Net-a-Porter, Browns, Tsum, Harrods, Selfridges and more.
“Both brands’ principle DNA is founded on glamour and sensuality, which, if we got right, provides confidence — in any being. That is the brand essence that we share,” Choi said.
The brands marked the collaboration in person last night with an event in Los Angles at Terminal 27, where a group of notable members from the fashion, art and social scenes danced to a set list curated by Kitty Cash and a performance by Chloe Bailey.
“The whole design process was done virtually so the event is like the complete opposite of virtual,” Choi said. “We worked on the screen to develop the collection and now we see it in real life, in person, see it move, and be.”
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