Back to School: Jimmy Choo
'Wait! I lost my Choo!', Carrie Bradshaw yelps in the third season of Sex & The City as she looses a white feather slingback heel to the Hudson River. With a design immortalised in one of the most iconic wardrobes in pop culture history, the brand Jimmy Choo, founded in 1996, was already a household name. Growing up the son of a shoe cobbler, Choo had moved from his hometown in Malaysia to the UK to finesse his craft of hand-making beautiful shoes in the 1980s, quickly making a name for himself. Eventually serving the likes of Princess Diana in his made-to-order boutique, he went on to co-found his namesake company.
Choo knows a thing or two about not only fashion, but business too. In 2001, he sold his half of Jimmy Choo for $30 million, shifting his focus to the Jimmy Choo Couture line. Coming from humble beginnings, Choo has never underestimated the need to create a self-sustaining business, but it's apparent that it's the art of making which really gets him going. There's great weight given to Choo's legacy as a mentor and teacher too. So, in 2021, the designer opened the doors to the JCA Fashion Academy, which he co-founded with Stepen Smith.
Mr Choo told SHOWstudio more about the school and the lessons he has learnt along the way.
What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt in your life so far?
Professor Jimmy Choo: The most valuable lesson has been in humility. Humility will get you far in business and in life. This is something I remind the students of often. This can be a tough industry so we hope to teach students to enter the workplace with kindness and openness that creates a positive impact and changes the industry for the better.
Where does your sense of business come from?
JC: My parents were shoemakers so I followed my father’s lead and he inspired me throughout my entire career. My father mentored me to be the best shoe designer I could be as well as giving me the business knowledge that I still carry with me today.
Why did you see it as your responsibility to create a school?
JC: Education is very important to me and I wanted to be able to mentor more young designers. Nowadays, having a strong work ethic isn’t enough to cut it in this industry. Designers also need creativity, skill, and a team of mentors to support them. Founding this school meant that I was able to support these emerging designers and provide them with the resources, network and skills they need to succeed.
How would you define 'success' today in fashion?
JC: Success to me is loving what you do and paying it back to those around you. I want to continue sharing what I know and what I have with the world. It's a big reason why I wanted to start the JCA, to share my knowledge and network with the next generation of designers.
JCA seems to promote that creativity and business aren't mutually exclusive. How have you personally balanced the two?
JC: It's really important to balance the creative side of being a designer with the business demands. I always designed what I was inspired to create but I had to listen to the customers and find a way to balance what I wanted to create with what they wanted to wear.
Do you think it's harder to launch a business today? Why is there such a gap in education for 'luxury brand training', as JCA puts it?
JC: It's never been easy to launch a business. Most designer schools teach technical design skills and develop many talented designers each year, but the gap is in entrepreneurial education. It was really important in setting up the JCA that when the learners left, they had an actual business. The student-led gallery and e-commerce store allow the students to sell their products, which is something you don't see anywhere else.
