I was wondering if the best was behind me, had the high point of my career already happened. Then I saw what Manolo had done, and some of his best work happened after he turned 40.
I couldn't have asked for a better testimonial than Bob Dylan parting with his own cash for a pair of my shoes.
Shoe design is like architecture - with the finest structure and tight, precise seams, it suits my obsessive neatness.
I love Italy, and that's where I make my own shoes. But the French really do respect designers. Italy is totally different; footwear is an industry. The shoes are all about craft and luxury. French shoes are more about straight lines, and they are way more geometric.
After selling the business, and the Patrick Cox brand in 2007, I had a three-year non-compete, where I just spent a lot of time hanging all over the world on beaches and having fun.
I lived in Nigeria, Chad, and Cameroon when I was very young, until my mother divorced my father.
