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Manolo Blahnik takes inspiration from fashion history for its latest spring-summer 2021 collection
Inspiration, as designers often like to say, can come from any source—a walk down a garden path, the curves of the human body, or the visuals of a museum art piece. One less often-cited source of inspiration, however, comes from fellow designer peers, whose works can influence and define an entire fashion era. It is to those peers, and other historical sources of inspiration, that venerated shoe designer Manolo Blahnik looked to when conceiving his latest spring-summer collection. After all, creativity cannot happen in a vacuum.
Blahnik’s latest creations draw from the likes of radical 20th-century fashion and interior designer Paul Poiret, as well as exalted French fashion designers Madeleine Vionnet and Marie-Louise Carven, also known as Madame Carven, all of whom created innovative designs that revolutionised the fashion industry during their time. He was also animated by the modern art deco creations of Irish architect and furniture designer Eileen Gray, as well as Spanish fashion designer Paco Rabanne and his signature armour-like chainmail dresses.
The result of these diverse sources of inspiration is an enviable collection of contemporary shoes—heels, mules, sandals, and flats alike—that highlights the genius of these epoch-defining designers as well as the allure of bygone eras.
(Related: Manolo Blahnik x Castaner: An Unlikely Shoe Collab?)
