JCREPORT: GIUSEPPE ZANOTTI INTERVIEW
My interview with Giuseppe is up on JCREPORT. I had such a wonderful time meeting the master himself, he was just as creative and brilliant as you would imagine him to be and I came away totally inspired about life.
At the end of the interview for JC, I asked, “Giuseppe, if you were to choose a shoe for me from your showroom what would it be?” He sat quietly for a moment, and then he started talking, in Italian, very quickly . . . “it is summer, you are in a long silk dress, Giambattista Valli, black or charcoal, long and silk, delicately made, you don’t see the shoe, you just see a flash of color, ” then he got up and walked across the showroom to bring me a gorgeous knotted, royal purple silk stiletto mule, “to step in a silk shoe is almost like going barefoot, there are no constrictions with this shoe, you are loose, free.”
And that my friends, is a true shoe prescription.
Read what he had to say about his inspiration, what it means to be Made in Italy and all about women and mood and shoes.
“JC Report (me): Where you do find inspiration for your line?
Giuseppe Zanotti: I try to understand the woman’s sensibility. Inspiration for the collection could come from many different places—simple pictures from Italian photographs from the ’60s and ’70s. I might be inspired by the mood, the makeup, the atmosphere, the time period, and then I take that and project it into future, like a time machine. I run from the past and the future to the secret women’s wardrobe—every woman lets me into their personal closets. I want to capture their secret desires both in private and everyday life—from shopping to cocktail parties—
to stop and study the little private details in a woman’s life.
JCR: How did it help to just focus on shoes?
GZ: When I saw others do full collections—lifestyle, home, earrings, etc—this is business, I understand, I like this. But when we talk about shoes, it is a serious job—not many others are doing it at this level. I want to do a fusion of both creativity and production—
the correct way for this time, and then also the future. Timeless designs not for the fashion, but for a woman’s wardrobe forever. My mission is to do shoes and stay focused on that, to understand what I can do more for my women. I need to study more in shoes. Do I want to jump into another thing? No. I want to learn more about shoes, learn about myself and my identity. I do not want to outpace my company.
JCR: What’s your favorite new store?
GZ: Fifteen years ago, thinking about stores, [I] thought about different markets—it was very difficult—
NYC, London, Milan, Tokyo, we created the same store, atmosphere and mood across the globe, but the NYC Madison store and Sloane Street in London… there are more elements that are close to me from the studio in those stores because there is a bit more room.
JCR: How has Hollywood had an impact on your business?
GZ: Rock stars love to wear something more unique, sexy, sophisticated, super-crazy for the Grammys and for videos and concerts—
super-crazy but super-classy. Sometimes sweet, sometimes aggressive. ” Read the entire interview here.
March 23rd, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Those purple slides are so gorgeous, so erotic, I wish I had sent you the link…