The school of Jimmy Choo

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“Shoes are very important,” says Jimmy Choo, beadily studying my heavy-duty biker boots. “If you’re not comfortable, you spoil your body, and your spine will not be straight. A lot of people don’t walk straight when they walk — they don’t wear shoes nicely.” The debonair shoe designer, whose super-sparkly creations have been worn by everyone from British royalty to Hollywood stars, would know all about the importance of good footwear. Dressed in a characteristically exuberant jewel-toned jacket and crystal-embellished midnight-blue brogues of his own design, he is chatting in a light-filled room of the recently restored Boston Manor House in the leafy west London suburb of Brentford, Hounslow, where he is opening a new “makerspace” for emerging craftspeople and designers. According to the Red List of Endangered Crafts published by the Heritage Crafts Association (an advocacy body established to safeguard traditional heritage crafts in the UK), shoe-making, hat-making and glove-making have all become “endangered” skills, meaning there are fewer practitioners to pass expertise on, and a dwindling number of people entering the profession. The soaring cost of materials and supplies following Brexit, or the problem of purchasing specialist equipment, pose further challenges.

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