“Gold!” exclaims Manolo Blahnik, during a phone call from La Palma. Blahnik grew up here, under the sun and by the sea of Spain’s Canary Islands. Today, “Our Golden Year” is what ignited Blahnik’s rallying cry: his treasure chest collection of footwear, unveiled in time to honour 50 years in business.
Not that he is too concerned with the milestone anniversary. “A milestone? To me, it feels like 50 days that I have been working,” he deadpans. “To me, it’s a very small time. Every collection we do has some gold shoes. It’s nothing new to me.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Our Golden Year celebrates Blahnik’s five decades of creation with glistening, glowing and even sparkling flourish. To Blahnik, the collection’s richly hued theme provided food for thought and contemplation. “This is not the time to do things like that,” he said. “But, I cannot be unfaithful to myself and do something just because it is more commercial, or because it is not the time. I do what I do, and that’s it. I really like to create some kind of controversy. And I like gold.”
With a Midas touch, Blahnik has cast timeless models – the buckled Hangisi, or the Nadira, a pointed court shoe crowned with an asymmetrical crystal leaf-shaped embellishment – in satins dyed to glisten with a near liquid gold effect. A group of macramé footwear requires golden lurex thread to be woven by hand; elsewhere, a metallic lace effect is inviting to the fingertips. There are golden tassels and feathers, too. “Gold has always been inspiring,” said their creator.
When working on this collection, Blahnik let his mind wander, recalling personal memories of gold and the golden shoes he previously read about in history books. “I wanted to tell you, the first gold shoes in the world were worn by the Greeks,” he said. “Actors in Greece used to wear huge chunks of gold, very high, to project themselves in the amphitheatre. Then, of course, the Egyptians!”
The “Flequillohi” is a stand-out boot that Blahnik is enamoured with. “I love this shoe,” he said. “I wanted to make it in silk but silk was very frail so we did it in satin silk, which we can double up and which is much stronger. I have never seen one with bells, very practical!”
-
Elon Musk’s pivot from Mars to the moonIn the Spotlight SpaceX shifts focus with IPO approaching
-
‘Hong Kong is stable because it has been muzzled’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Magazine solutions - February 20, 2026Puzzle and Quizzes Magazine solutions - February 20, 2026
-
Catherine O'Hara: The madcap actress who sparkled on ‘SCTV’ and ‘Schitt’s Creek’Feature O'Hara cracked up audiences for more than 50 years
-
6 gorgeous homes in warm climesFeature Featuring a Spanish Revival in Tucson and Richard Neutra-designed modernist home in Los Angeles
-
Touring the vineyards of southern BoliviaThe Week Recommends Strongly reminiscent of Andalusia, these vineyards cut deep into the country’s southwest
-
Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency – an ‘engrossing’ exhibitionThe Week Recommends All 126 images from the American photographer’s ‘influential’ photobook have come to the UK for the first time
-
American Psycho: a ‘hypnotic’ adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis classicThe Week Recommends Rupert Goold’s musical has ‘demonic razzle dazzle’ in spades
-
Properties of the week: houses near spectacular coastal walksThe Week Recommends Featuring homes in Cornwall, Devon and Northumberland
-
Melania: an ‘ice-cold’ documentaryTalking Point The film has played to largely empty cinemas, but it does have one fan
-
Nouvelle Vague: ‘a film of great passion’The Week Recommends Richard Linklater’s homage to the French New Wave
