Rupert Sanderson's Blog

Buonissimo!

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 17:07:31 +0100

I was asked recently what one of my favourite eating experiences is. I'm here today at La Lanterna or more commonly Bruna's. It is one of a handful of trattorie in the little village where I have my factory, and Bruna has been hand-making pasta every day since she was 13. The beef for the sugo is often supplied by Claudio my partner here, whose son runs a cattle farm. Bruna's husband, Germano, squeezes a few Sangovese grapes together to provide the wine and all the banter is in impenetrable dialect. I'm left a blessed-out mute every time.

Blog addition: I've also included a photo of Richard Nicoll taking a picture of my socks. See related Nicoll blog.

Guest Of Honour

Tue, 24 May 2011 15:49:15 +0100

We have our new Guest Editor up on the site: the semplicemente favolosa Valeria Napoleone, a champion of the contemporary art scheme and patron of female artists. She lets us into her childhood experiences in Italy and how they helped shape her love of the perfect accessory. Read it all here.

Paris

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:50:20 +0100

I've got the first of our guest editors up on out refreshed website. The artfully fashion conscious Badaude has produced an illustration of what is inspiring her, as she straddles London and Paris. You might be familiar with Badaude's take on fashion and all things fashionable through her weekly Times column. She also illustrates for Shakespeare And Company in Paris and edits an award-winning blog: http://badaude.typepad.com/. The book is due in the autumn.

During a whistle stop trip to Paris last week I managed to squeeze in the Madam Gres exhibition. Working just after the war up to the Seventies, her dresses seem so incredibly modern and sculptural. A draper, she also sketched and the single sheets from her sketch books/hotel letter heads etc are fascinating - tiny, and mostly in fountain pen.

Madame Gres Exhibition, Musée Bourdelle, Rue Antoine-Bourdelle, 75015, Paris.

Until July 24 2011.

Narcissistic, Moi?

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:21:04 +0100

As I'm sure you all know I name my shoes after types of daffodils?! On Tuesday I took myself down to the Royal Horticultural Society Exhibition Halls in Victoria - perhaps better know to Vogue readers as the venue for the British Fashion Awards.

The annual R.H.S daffodil breeders competition is held at the end of March and some of the specimens and new breeds are truly breathtaking. Until the new breeds can be produced in sustainable quantities many of them still don't have names. Here are a few that may join the 26,000 that are already registered - that's a lot of shoes!

For those who want to see more go to R.A. Scamp, winner of the R.H.S Gold Medal for 8 years on the trot, at www.qualitydaffodils.com.

Shoes For Prose

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 16:50:53 +0100

The Rupert Sanderson website has undergone a spring clean and among a host of new ways of seeing (and buying), the collections online, we have added a few new features. The one I'm currently fixated on is our Guest Editor spot. On a monthly basis we will be engaging interesting and erudite types to contribute their thoughts and views in return for a pair of shoes of their choice - Shoes for Prose. To mark the site re-launch we thought we'd throw the Guest Editorship open to our friends and fans for a month as a competition. If you'd like to know more click through: http://www.rupertsanderson.com/news/cat/guest_editor/

Sublime To The Fabulous

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:26:15 +0100

Osman autumn/winter 2011-12

House of Holland autumn/winter 2011-12

Due to some fairly extraordinary diary planning, I managed to catch both Henry Holland's wonderful 'Granny takes a trip show' and be caught in the rain on Lake Windermere on the very same day. Got me thinking about how you are able to be in two places, or be two people at the same time...

A few things I have also enjoyed in the past seven days:

True Grit
Dinner at Holbeck Gyhll
RA Modern British Sculpture
Drinks at Number 10
Lucy Caldwell's The Meeting Point
Retrouvius (www.retrouvius.com)
Danny Boyle's Frankenstein (www.nationaltheatre.org.uk)
Osman Yousefzada's show
Oysters at the Butley Orford Oysterage
Tom Dixon's canal side restaurant and shop
Visiting Preen

Paris and Milan, at the same time - easy peasy...

When David Met Jade

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:18:59 +0100

At the end of last year we gave over our fabulous showroom space over to David Downton and Vogue's own Jade Parfitt for a filmed Artist and Muse masterclass. The film was posted this week so if you haven't had the chance, take a look: http://www.vogue.co.uk/video/voguetv/player.aspx/editors-film/video,10155/.

Watch this space for a David Downton exhibition.

Throw Your Hands (And Gloves) In The Air!

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:11:12 +0100

I managed to tack a few days skiing in Meribel onto last week’s trip to Italy - two boozy, idiotic days and cloudless and almost empty slopes. Spoilt rotten by staying with old friends who know the area inside out so no faffing with piste maps, and skiing in the sun all day. Forgot that only in a ski resort is it acceptable to dance to Nineties anthems at 3pm in the afternoon in day-glo (spot on for this summer completely by accident), and impossible boots (err ditto) – all with the most breathtaking scenery as a back drop. There have been some advances in the gear since I last went including the now ubiquitous wearing of helmets. Couldn't resist this bad boy, complete with integral iPod speakers. So now I can ski like a madman with relentless Nineties anthems at full volume with a false sense of safety.

Busman's Holiday

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 17:38:17 +0100

We had a shocking Christmas and New Year - the Swine was rampant. We had to cancel almost everything and we weren't much fun at the things we did do. So we've just returned from a restorative few nights away - in Mayfair!

I think we've discovered a new city secret. London is fantastic in the few days after new year; you've got the place to yourselves, we had a fantastic room at Claridge's, ate where we wanted to with no problems booking, galleries are pleased to see you and the shops are both at their cheapest and most interesting because the first mad sales rush is over and a lot of spring/summer is already in.

Definitely one for next year.

Christmas Festivities

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:18:18 +0100

Last night saw team RS descend upon the South Bank for our annual Christmas knees up. We were treated to an evening of cabaret, vaudeville and some out-of-this-world showmanship at La Soiree (www.la-soiree.com), the new show from the cast and creators of La Clique. From double jointed Norwegians squeezing themselves through tennis rackets whilst standing on a metre high pile of buckets, to world-renowned Spanish (via Croydon) senorita, Ursula Martinez performing her cult striptease, it was a cracking Christmas feast for the senses. Book the ‘posh seats’- close enough to see all the action, but far enough away not to get pulled up on stage by Miss Behave or soaked by aerial ballet dancer David O’Mer. Photography was forbidden – but I managed to sneak this one out.

La Soiree runs until 27th February 2011 at the South Bank Big Top.

Less Is More

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 15:14:56 +0100

Katie Hillier's picture of the group.

Shamed by Katie Hillier's opus on the goings-on at the British Fashion Awards last night, I'm pressed to give my version of events.

Apart from the BAFTAs, it's hard to think of a more starry awards ceremony and in a way, because the British Fashion awards is strictly (well almost) a British affair, it has a comforting reunion feel about it - people are very quickly on their jolliest form.

Great night in the recently re-opened Savoy; the event was split over three separate mini venues which involved much cloakroom hilarity.

Shoes were well represented this year and I was chuffed to bits that Nicolas Kirkwood walked away with Accessory Designer of the year.

I was given a dressing down by Dylan Jones for forgetting my bow tie which prompted a three way tirade with Patrick Grant, surprise (no more than his) winner of the Menswear award, on "American Black Tie" conclusion: basically, black office wear.

Jade mothered us all into a taxi and there was a choice moment when Erdem was extolling the injustice of Margaret Howell not winning the Menswear award, oblivious to Patrick stroking the very same in the back of the cab.

Soho House for afters was wall-to-wall fash... Gave me an opportunity to buy Nicolas a bottle of Champagne. Hijinks continued into the wee hours. See Katie's blog for all photos - I forgot my phone/camera as well!

SEE KATIE HILLIER'S BLOG HERE

Them Upstairs

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 10:27:16 +0100

We welcomed the House of Voltaire to our show room space on Wednesday. Click the link to check out what it's all about.

www.studiovoltaire.org/houseofvoltaire

Their creative director Joe Scotland was there until 6am to hand and display all the work. Great PV and great after party at the Ivy Club. The House of Voltaire is open for business until December 4 - all are welcome, great Christmas presents and all proceeds go to a fantastically worthwhile cause.

Heart Of Glass

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 14:13:32 +0100

Way back in February I was given a day’s Stained Glass course for my birthday by my wonderful team. So popular has it become (I think thanks to the Monty Don Mastercrafts programme), that it wasn't until November that there were any spaces on the course. I loved it. Richard, who has been making for 20 years current commissions include thousands of butterflies for Damian Hurst, is a great teacher. He managed to get six complete novices through all the key processes to make a panel in six hours. I won't show you what I made as it was too twee for words but took a photo of a piece in his studio which is a copy of a small window in Ely Cathedral - where I went to school. It’s called Hammer and Tongs - how appropriate

Compare And Contrast

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:12:10 +0100

Started the weekend in the tallest building in the world and ended it (literally) on the UK's longest pier... Dubai to Southend, both pretty loopy.

A Family Treasure

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 09:14:26 +0100

I picked this painting up in Italy last week from an ageing relative of my wife's. It's a simple sketch painted by Hein Heckroth, my wife's great grandfather. He had an extraordinary life, which included fleeing Germany in the Thirties, being interned by the British, teaching at Dartington Hall and winning an Oscar for Art Directing the Red Shoes. So with varied and tumultuous creative lives in mind, I'm looking forward to the new Gauguin exhibition at the Tate Modern - Able Seaman, successful banker, father of at least seven, Van Gough's nemesis and scourge of Polynesia. It's gonna be a big one!

The exhibition is running from the 30th September 2010 to 16th January 2011.

Bella Italia

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 16:42:40 +0100

After the high jinx of last week, which saw us throwing ourselves wholeheartedly into Fashion's Night Out with dance lessons being held upstairs above the store (see above pic of Vogue's Calgary with dancer extraordinaire, Don Waugh), it's back to the grind stone with the first trip to Italy since July - really looking forward to it. With all the hullabaloo that surrounds life in London, I love the singular purpose that time in Italy means - that and great food, coffee, language, sunshine, scenery, bella figura, wine. I could go on...

Box Clever

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 10:06:36 +0100

As part of Selfridge's new biggest-in-the-world shoe floor, opening at the beginning of September and designed by Jamie Fobert, the designers that are stocked there have been asked to design a world in a shoe box. I decided to create a miniature cinema to show the Oscar winning classic The Red Shoes. The boxes will form part of an exhibition to be shown in the windows of Selfridges for 6 weeks.

Animal!

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:56:44 +0100

We have a little bit of printed 'pony' skin left over from this winter's production. Look what one of the guys from the factory made with it.

When Saint Laurent Met Corbusier

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:01:28 +0100

One of our close neighbours in Paris is Maison Bonnet. They have been making glasses frames for four generations and have supplied the iconic face furniture for Aristotle Onassis, Yves Saint Laurent and Audrey Hepburn amongst others. Made from a stock of real tortoise shell, each pair of glasses is bespoke as a pair of Haute Lunette. Starting price is an eye watering €7,000. Still, we had fun.

Willy Ronis Retrospective

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:18:36 +0100

Lovely photographic exhibition on at the moment in La Monnaie de Paris (the old Paris Mint) just off Place de Concord.
The address is Musée de la Monnaie de Paris (The Paris Mint), 11 Quai de Conti, Paris 06, Métro Pont Neuf, until 22nd August 2010.

For more information see http://www.monnaiedeparis.fr

Fashion Ahoy!

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:12:23 +0100

One of the great curiosities at the top of Shaftsebury Avenue is Arthur Beale, a yacht's chandlers you'd expect to find in Falmouth, not opposite an Italian furniture super brands shop in the West End. I have been popping into Arthur Beale for as long as I can remember (I sail a bit).

I do have an increasing worry every time I pay a visit - how long they can survive. They seem sublimely set against the march of retail time. www.arthurbeale.com - I doubt it. What they sell is as timeless as the way they sell it. How can you improve on a 2 1/2" flush mounted brass duck board ring? Or the cheapest Saint James striped Breton tops in London? Form an orderly queue please.

Aura Alright

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:57:01 +0100

To the Solange Azagury-Partridge store opening round the corner from us on Bond Street. Fun to see Notting Hill nobility scruffing up the Mayfair streets - made me feel a bit nostalgic.

The store is a womb of velvety luxe, although downstairs gave me an (overly) warm feeling of being at the Globe Chess n' Chillin' club on Talbot Road. The dark alcoves were occupied by Aura measuring machines. Crammed in with the likes of Thandie Newton, Bella Freud and the ever amazing Victoria Fernandez - who exploded with joy at scoring 71 per cent for spirit!

Bursting back onto the street for air it was great to see how far Solange had come, from one small shop on Westbourne Grove 15 years ago to bang opposite Louise Vuitton's latest flagship opening.

La Dolce Vita

Fri, 28 May 2010 12:59:58 +0100

After a hectic week last week, which saw us out to Munich for a six hour press junket for MYTERESA.COM, and the opening of our fantastic new shop at 19 Bruton Place, it was a relief to get back to the day job in Italy. As you can see, the pool's almost finished. Roll on the summer!

Welcome Home

Tue, 18 May 2010 15:12:30 +0100

Feels almost unreal. We turned up for work on Monday at our new home at 19 Bruton Place. It’s perfect. Shop on the bottom, showroom and press office on the first floor and offices on the top - originally designed by über architect Eric Parry. As we spent the day settling in, Erin O’Connor drank mint dulips in the bar below with the SHOWstudio team. As we've always said, Bruton Place - it's the place to be!

Shoes Fit For A Princess

Thu, 06 May 2010 15:04:33 +0100

The shoes I designed for Amneris in the Royal Opera’s production of Aida.

Salty Signage

Thu, 06 May 2010 14:57:22 +0100

Blasted to bits on the Suffolk coast this weekend. Loved the boat and hut sign signs off Ferry Road south of Southwold.

J'arrive!

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 09:24:31 +0100

Well, the Paris store is finished, shoes are all in and we have a fantastic team to run things. It was a Champagne moment to walk through the Palais Royal in the spring sunshine, through the colonnades and there it was - my shop!

The Pamela in orange python

Quil-ity

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:38:58 +0100

I like quilts - there, I've said it. As a medium of social history they are incredibly expressive, and as an artistic milieu they constantly evolve (just ask Tracey Emin). So, the recently opened exhibition at the V&A of Quilts 1700 - 2010 was a must.

It is a celebration of more than 300 years of British quilts and patchworks. I was particularly pleased to discover something called the Sanderson Star - a geometric technique of quilting a star within a star. March 20 to July 4, 2010.

www.vam.ac.uk/collections/textiles/quilts-1700-2010.

If this exhibition inspires you, I suggest you also check out my favourite quilts of all, the Quilts of Gees Bend: www.quiltsofgeesbend.com. Now there is some social history.

Dealing With Divas

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:14:20 +0100

The Royal Opera House AIDA project is reaching a crescendo. Opening night is April 27 and the cast are all now in London for rehearsal and fittings. There has been a last minute change in casting for Amneris.

As you can see, all very different from catwalk preparation...

Rupert In Hong Kong – Day Three

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:43:41 +0100

The morning after the night before...

9.30am
Straight into back-to-back interviews at the shop. The local tradition is for friends and well-wishers to send flowers to the shop and they are put on bamboo stands outside. I can barely get into the shop there are so many. Interviews blur into one another until a TV crew turns up. They turn the shop into a set and I'm interviewed by the gorgeous Mandy Lieu who has the most infectious laugh that goads me into misbehaving.

12.30pm
Break for lunch and a fantastic Thai massage at the Hermitage Spa nearby before back for one final round of interviews and TV.

6.00pm
Just enough time for a quick spin round the shops - the standard of retail presentation is so high here and merchandising is taken to an art form. Nice to see someone buying my shoes in Lane Crawford. Jump in a cab and it's off to the airport for what could possibly be the last BA flight for five days. Wouldn't mind too much if I miss it...

Rupert In Hong Kong – Day Two

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:00:00 +0100

8.30am
The dreaded jet lag hasn't got me and I had a great night's sleep (says a man with two small children).

9.00am
Off to the press breakfast at the Mandarin Oriental. Good turn out and great Eggs Benedict.

10.30am
Sucked into the vortex of press and VIP's that all look familiar and strange but all TOO important. Start the rounds of interviews, bloggy TV and stuff. Have to say, some good questions asked: bit spooked by how well researched people are. Need to sort the music! Dash across to HMV - delight in blowing £100 in five mins on music: take risk on stuff I've never heard of. Things are starting to hot up, the flowers keep coming (see pic) more interviews, more really tricky questions. The whole thing is beginning to kick off...

Rupert with Teresa Wong

Rupert with Divia Harilela of the South China Morning Post

'Estelle' in black leather

5am
And then next thing I know I'm lying on my bed trying to write my blog. Night night x

Rupert In Hong Kong – Day One

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:41:09 +0100

3.00pm
Just arrived after the 12 hour flight feeling remarkably refreshed. Hit by that wall of tropical heat - I love it. Heading into the city to meet our fantastic partners here. They approached us in October last year with the proposition of opening a shop for us in Hong Kong based solely on the service and shoes they bought on a trip to London in the summer. We've spent a lot of time with them since then and they have meticulously carried out the Rupert Sanderson shop fit - can't wait to see it in the flesh. First have to sign a zillion specially-made daffodil pots for the grand opening tomorrow.

4.30pm
Signed 160 little terracotta pots for the daffs and over to the shop for the first time. Very strange seeing your name in lights in a foreign town. The shop is perfect! They have executed every detail down to the blue buttons in the velvet chesterfield...

5.15pm
Meet a journalist and some influential bloggers (could one of them be the next Bryan Boy??). Lots of photos. Realise I'm still wearing the same shirt I went to a funeral in before getting on the plane...

6.00pm
Over to the Mandarin Oriental barber shop for a freshen-up.

7.15pm
To the China Club for the world’s best gin and tonic - the view from the terrace bar...

8.00pm
Meet our local PR who has put together a schedule for the next few days that makes me wilt.

8.30pm
Downstairs for dinner. What a space! The spirit of Twenties Shanghai lives on in the China Club.

12.00pm
Back to the bar for a night cap. Everybody keeps saying "10 'til 10...big day tomorrow". Opening night party tomorrow and most of Hong Kong seem to be coming! I take the hint and head for bed.

OMB (Oh My Blog)

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:49:43 +0100

Something from the New Yorker I thought might amuse.

Viva La Lagerfeld!

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:35:57 +0100

For the third season running, The Kaiser asked me to design the shoes for his ready-to-wear collection.

The show kicked of Sunday's schedule with The XX blaring and girls clad head-to-toe in PVC to match the oil slick black runway. Karl Lagerfeld’s collection was futuristic (with signature sharp tailoring), super sexy and pretty damn tough - especially when teamed with the boots adapted from two of my killer heels Delta and Marconi, made up in slick black patent, suede and chunky pewter and black python.

Viva la Lagerfeld!

Shanghai Surprise

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:25:08 +0100

Strolling down Bond Street the other day, a very unusual pair of shoes caught my eye: Church's re-issue (in every distressed detail) of their 1929(!)Shanghai style. I'm off to Hong Kong at the end of the month for the opening of our new shop - paired with a heavy draped zoot suit and pencil moustache, what could be more on the money?

Hot Rats Vs Fat Rascals

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:13:55 +0100

Snapped both these photos in the same day. The last Fat Rascal in Clark's Bakery in Easingwold, North Yorkshire and a few hours later Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey giving it some as the Hot Rats. Supergrass....super cake!

The Genius Of Irving Penn

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:58:09 +0100

Attended the opening of the Irving Penn exhibition at the NPG last night. In the age of the hard lit “snapped” portrait, it's great to be reminded of a more formal approach where lighting and posing were principle in the portrait photographer’s art.

Penn was a master at making the viewer aware of the complex psychology of his subjects. Irving Penn, who worked for Vogue from the Forties, famously said that his client was "the lady in Kansas that reads Vogue" which I think gives great grounding to his work of photographing the authors and architects of the ideas, images and fashions of the 20th Century.

www.npg.org.uk:8080/irvingpenn/index.htm From February 18 to June 6, 2010.

Shoe Love

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:30:29 +0100

Rather pleased with our Gothic Valentine’s window display this year.

Woke Up This Morning...

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:28:34 +0100

...and this was the view from my shoe factory in Italy.

Medieval Magic

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:03:30 +0100

V&A’s Medieval & Renaissance Galleries, The Renaissance City 1350-1600 © V&A images www.alanwilliamsphotography.com

The recently re-opened Medieval and Renaissance Galleries at the Victoria & Albert Museum are a must. If the V&A consisted ONLY of these new galleries it would still be a world class museum. Donatello et al await you.

V&A’s Medieval & Renaissance Galleries, The Rise of Gothic 1200-1350 © V&A images www.alanwilliamsphotography.com

I Got Soul

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:14:45 +0100

Prompted by reading of the death of Teddy Pendergrass I'm listening to quite a bit of old soul at the moment. Two old groovers in particular are bending my ear. Bobby Womack was one of those grafters who wrote and played for just about everyone (including on Sly Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On), before recording under his own name. Similarly, Allen Toussaint is a music insider whose name pops up in the credits of some of the best albums of all time. As well as a recent compilation, I'd recommend his latest album The Bright Mississippi. And as for the Bobster, any of the compilations on iTunes as long as it’s got Daylight on it; for vinyl junkies, Womack Winners. RIP Teddy Pendergrass.

Key To The Palais

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:16:48 +0100

Today I picked up the key to our Palais Royal store. See, I took a picture of it!

Bonne Année!

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:22:17 +0100

I'm really looking forward to 2010. We have found a fantastic space at the north end of the Palais Royal in Paris which will be open for business in April AND we're opening a store in Hong Kong at the end of March. Along with designing all the shoes for the Royal Opera House production of Aida (cast of 220!) in April, working with Karl Lagerfeld on his Paris show in March and the regular fashion calendar hullabaloo, I've got my hands pleasingly full over the next six months.

A Cosy Christmas

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:57:42 +0100

It's Christmas and everybody needs a Christmas jumper. Well I was lucky enough to receive one of North Sea Clothing's Sub Mariner jumpers (www.northseaclothing.co.uk). Replicating the pattern of the original in every detail, it not only feels (slightly oily) and looks the business at this time of year, (and particularly today), but it suits me perfectly. See that extra long and extra thin part at the bottom? Well anyone who rides a motorbike or scooter will see what that's all about - warm kidneys and lower back! Goes perfectly under the Belstaff. Thank you Andrew.

Surrealist Weekend

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:01:53 +0100

We ate at the fabled El Bulli this weekend courtesy of my great friend Rafael Castaner (of Espadrille fame). The restaurant has not only been voted Best Restaurant in the World for the umpteenth year running, it is also notoriously difficult to get a table, for the best reason in the world - it is utterly democratic, booking can only be made through their website and it's first come first served.

And what we were served was 37 courses of the most surreal and wonderful food (un)imaginable. It is fitting that Salvador Dali's house is only 10 miles away and eating in El Bulli is the culinary equivalent of finding yourself in one of his dream paintings.

Here are a few tasters: globe of frozen Gorgonzola, mimetics peanuts, flower nectar, tartufo glass and the sublimely literal hare brain. Must be something in the water as the whole trip was peppered by my three-year-old son's endless stream of questions from the back of the car: "How do hills sleep, do peas have ears, is there a dogapiller...?"

“Un Caffe”

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:06:22 +0100

Coming through the airport today I noticed that Starbucks has brought back its Egg Nog Latte. Which got me thinking about coffee, and Italy. It seems there are two worlds of coffee: Espresso and the rest. Don't get me wrong, I'm as partial to a bucket of hot brown milk as the next man, but my heart belongs to the simple espresso and its grooved rituals. In Italy espresso is simply “un caffe” and it is the first thing I have once through customs. I start by approaching the till (never the bar) and grunting "caffe per favore". The tiny receipt, when proffered to the barista, is ripped in half and then the dance begins: The thick rimmed tassa have a particular note when dropped on to the saucer, followed by the pizzicato of the little metal spoon, until finally the lot is rattled on to the marble counter top. Espresso in London is a lottery, not least of which is what temperature it's going to be. Like putting a baby in the bath, it’s always best to double check. Not so in Italy. The cup is always warm to the touch, the coffee a tarry puddle with a tight head of crema made from the coffee's emulsified oils. A few grains of cane sugar, stir and slug. Brrrrrrr, I love it.

The Power Of Mrs B

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:44:18 +0100

I attended a rather curious event last night. A fashion show in the Canadian Consulate on Grosvenor Square. The event was in aid of the charity Women for Women International and organized by Browns’ all powerful Mrs B. It is testament to her powers of persuasion that she had not only convinced the Canadian Ambassador to remove most of his furniture (into the bedrooms upstairs I was told) but also to have corralled model royalty (Stella Tennent et al) and most of London's top design talent to donate their work and time. I donated shoes from my Spring Summer 2010 collection and a signed sketch, whilst Henry Holland threatened an evening at the Paramount Club in his lot, along with a lacy ensemble from his SS10 collection modelled by Peaches Geldolf. All in all the evening raised over £84,000 for a very deserving cause.

www.womenforwomen.org

Remembrance

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:24:49 +0100

I finally had a chance to see the tapestry of Guernica, Picasso's massive anti-war painting installed in the Whitechapel Gallery in March to mark its re-opening after extensive refurbishment. The original was first shown in the gallery in 1939, which would have coincided with Franco finally crushing the last bits of organized resistance of the Spanish Civil War. I have a very powerful memory of seeing the original for the first time many years ago in Madrid's Reina Sofia Museum. I wasn't really expecting to see it, I just came across it in one of the bigger gallery rooms and it was like a bomb going off. It really had a percussive quality which made me feel like I'd received a blow to the head. The tapestry is more muted than the original but the advantage of its Whitechapel hanging is that you can approach it from a distance straight on, curiously along a bright blue carpet. Which reminded me that it normally hangs in the UN, and on the day Conan Powell gave his capitulation speech supporting war in Iraq - they covered it up. www.whitechapelgallery.org

A Very Busy Week

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:00:53 +0100

I’ve been so busy and it’s all going to be in my blog soon I promise… it involves Paris, Hong Kong, two giant Italian brands and the Royal Opera! Not forgetting sampling for AW10. It’s madness at the moment.

When Rupert Met Freida

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:53:09 +0100

We've all been heads down since Paris (lots of excitement in the pipeline). So it was a lovely distraction to have one of our number one fans, and high profile star on the rise, Freida Pinto come to see us. Accompanied by Dev Patel, they couldn't have been a more charming couple. It felt quite old fashioned in a way - stars themselves arriving (on time) and spending time going through the new collection and ordering styles, rather than militant stylists barking instructions two hours later than discussed. I approve.

Karl Lagerfeld

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:29:49 +0100

Well it's upon us again, Karl Lagerfeld's show or, seeing as we're in Paris, de file.

I'm thrilled with our shoes for him. They are an inspired adaptation of two strong looks from my collection this season - Finesse and Asteroid. Sprinkle a bit of Karl magic on them - in the form of a Banksy-esque stencil of him windmilling Pete Townsend style and Kerrang!! One monster rocking collection of catwalk shoes.

Karl Lagerfeld, spring/summer 2010 &copy FirstView/VOGUE.COM

When In Bologna...

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:43:23 +0100

Caught at Bologna airport and having been bumped up by Hertz to a top of the range Alfa Romeo I discovered, horror of horrors, that I had forgotten my sunglasses. What would be more in keeping than to buy a pair in the airport shop that matched the moment? Two days of touring round Italy in an Alfa Spider in the late September sunshine, there was only one choice: Persol's Eighties classic The 714. If ever a pair of sunglasses were able to make you feel like Steve McQueen, these are they.

High High Heels

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:13:32 +0100

The morning a large pink shoe was found in Berkeley Square...hoisted (quite high) by my own petard.

By coming up with an idea I thought might eclipse all others for Vogue's Fashion's Night Out, I found myself a few days later hanging out of a helicopter over Berkeley Square trying to take a photograph of "the highest heel in the world".

For the night itself we opened up the shop and invited all those who bought something to roller paint a single "pixel" of what we hoped would become a seven metre high shoe.

With DJs rocking the decks and quite a bit of chaos (any chance to dress up in a boiler suit), we managed 166 bright pink 50cm squares.

Cut to 7.00am a couple of days later, I'm dressed in the same boiler suit standing on the apron of Stapleford Aerodrome - a place I discovered not touched by fashion. Fortunately I was joined by Leica camera's official aerial photographer.

Meanwhile, back at Berkeley Square, in the half dark Liam Fahy and his team were clandestinely laying out the "shoe". He later told me he had to fight with all his might the urge to lay out something considerably more offensive.

It took less than 15 minutes to get to Berkeley Square from the M25 and I happily discovered we flew over my house on the way (more later).

Once we'd found the square (surprisingly difficult), we circled round taking photographs of a fantastically vivid pink shoe set in the bright green of Berkeley Square.

Within 10 minutes the Diplomatic Protection Office were on the radio shouting at the pilot that we were over flying Grosvenor Square - home of the American Embassy, and if we didn't stop they'd tell Michelle Obama to stop buying my shoes, or something.

The circles got tighter round the square as the helicopter banked steeper and steeper. The door was open and the photographer was literally hanging by his harness... I stopped looking and started shouting into my head piece that I thought we'd got enough shots and couldn't we go home.

As we peeled away I thought I would phone home to see if anyone was up and if they were, maybe they'd like to go into the garden. We found the house and circled once to see my son John in his dressing gown running around waving up madly. The whole thing took less than 40 minutes and I was back home in time to take him to nursery.

We are planning to make a limited addition of 166 high res bubble jet prints on 180gsm John Purcell artboard. One for each pixel. The first five VOGUE.COM readers to contact us at alex@rupertsanderson.co.uk will receive a free print, signed by me.

Over and out.

The Red Shoes

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:15:13 +0100

Rupert with designer Roland Mouret at last night's event © Shot By Shooter http://shotbyshooter.blogspot.com

Last night we hosted the first of three screenings of The Red Shoes in our Bruton Place shop. It has been converted into a mini cinema; complete with projection room, seating and even a popcorn machine for the occasion.

The Red Shoes is magical, often sited as many film makers' favourite film. Martin Scorsese feels so strongly about this British classic, made on a relative shoe string in 1948, that he helped lead its three-year-long restoration. It was re-introduced, by him, this year to the audiences at the Cannes Film Festival.

Guests at last night's event © Shot By Shooter http://shotbyshooter.blogspot.com

As well as possibly the best Technicolor film ever made (benefiting enormously from its hand coloured restoration), the art direction was by my wife's great grandfather, Hein Heckroth, who won one of the film's two Oscars for his genius.

The Oscar was in attendance last night, its gold plate having been rubbed off in parts through years of people picking it up and "thanking their agent". From Roland Mouret to Sir Richard Eyre, I'd specifically invited people who I thought would love seeing this glorious new edition. Under old-fashioned bare bulb lights strung across the street we drank champagne and had a magical late summer night.

Best Of British

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:34:06 +0100

Bucket and spade back in the cellar - mostly North Devon with a bit of fishing in the Yorks Dales now you ask.
Pleased to see the Richard Long exhibition at Tate Britain before it finishes in September. A quintessentially British artist, and his work felt all the more relevant having spent much of the holidays on his home turf.
There is something pleasingly simple about the genesis of his work, draw a circle on a map and then walk every lane and byway within it, walk 86 miles in one direction then walk for 86 hours in another.

Catch it before it closes on the 6th September - http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/richardlong/default.shtm

Sanderson's Shoe Of The Season

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:46:49 +0100

It's all go at the shop on Bruton Place today - most of the autumn/winter 2009-10 collection has just been delivered. My fave pair has to be Seleste (below).

The heel, inspired by master Italian designer Signore Gio Ponti, stands 110mm high and appears to look broken - when in fact it's totally balanced.

Perfect form and function.

Why Not...

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:24:17 +0100

Dream Boat...

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:30:50 +0100

Designing and making in Italy most of the month.

Gives me a chance to dream of owning my own Riva Aquarama Super - possibly the most beautiful speedboat ever made.

Up to Lake Garda for the weekend and saw a few plying their way between the waterside Palazzos - dream on...

J'adore Paris!

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:04:41 +0100

Every time we come to Paris I feel its gravitational pull gets stronger and stronger. As with retail in this uncertain world the primary sites are becoming more desirable (and expensive), as the secondary sites (Ledbury Road, you have been warned), become less so.

We have decided to concentrate our ex-London wholesale account, selling and international press presentations, in Paris next year and I think we have found a perfect home - it has one of the best views of the Eiffel Tower (literally through the Trocadero), one could imagine.

Talk about an iconic building - forever evokes romance, even when baked in bread.

J'adore Paris!

Gustosissimo!

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:39:46 +0100

I'm lucky enough to eat quite well, spending as I do, about 3 months a year in Italy. And I when I say quite well - I mean in an everyday Tavola Calda sense.

Now it may not be new news but British food is just getting better and better. I ate in two places this weekend that really knocked me out: 32 Great Queen Street at err... 32 Great Queen Street WC2 and Albion, part of the Conran Group's new hotel, bistro and restaurant setup in Boundary Street, Shoreditch, both serving a type of uncomplicated, delicious British fare that Italian friends of mine just rave about when they are over.

How's this: slow cooked shoulder of lamb served for a minimum of four people (reminiscent of the Italian staple Stinco al Forno), just fell off the bone and was spot on for slightly beery lads on a Friday night. Sunday lunch at Albion was again perfectly pitched, this time for a family not looking to be drowned in gravy. Sliced cold roast beef and potato salad with a round of Coronation chicken sandwiches.

British food so familiar, but served and sourced with the care that Italians instinctively lavish on their food. Gustosissimo!

Shine Up The Battle Apple

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:15:10 +0100

On the face of it I think I managed to combine two of the most perfect events happening in London last night: Jeff Koons' opening at the Serpentine (www.serpentinegallery.org) and Steely Dan at the Hammersmith Apollo (www.steelydan.com).

The two protagonists, Koons and Steely Dan's chief ringmaster Donald Fagen, are like two peas from the same New York City pod; they share the title of World's Most Pathological Perfectionists. Now, I consider myself pretty fussy about my craft - but these guys are legendary.

Even last night, Koons rejected the traditional Serpentine limited print so many times it had to be taxied to the show an hour late - and this of a drawing done it 2003!

The stories of Fagen are legion but to give an idea; on probably their most famous album Aja (just the 38 session musicians used), Bernard Purdie (the best drummer in the world at the time), after apparently getting take after take wrong, was asked to drum in the "style" of err.. Bernard Purdie.

Needless to say the concert was perfect, mixed feelings about the show. Now, where's that heel I've remade 19 times this season?

The Joys Of Summer

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:52:42 +0100

Summer, I feel, has properly arrived: we've got through a whole week of Wimbledon with no rain (god isn't Murray playing out of his skin?). But the true mark of the arrival of this scarcest of things is our first family outing to the Parliament Hill Lido.

Every year we marvel at its wonder - and talk insanely about "shouldn't we be doing this EVERY day?" Some years ago it was given a generous refurb and has been lined in stainless steel which helps retain (some!) heat but also gives the impression of swimming in the sea. At 60 metres long and 30-odd metres wide, combined with its great views, it gives a fantastic sense of space.

The wonderful combination of hardcore all-year-rounders and raucous families makes this Thirties swimming pool a true gem.

http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/content/contacts/non-council-contacts/contact-parliament-hill-lido.en

Yesh Mish Moneypenny

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:20:32 +0100

Ian Fleming would have been proud.

Flew down to Nice on Monday with nothing but a change of shirt (bespoke Turnbull & Asser now you ask), and my dinner jacket packed into a piece of my own handmade luggage. Took a helicopter from the airport to join the FT Luxury Conference where I'd been invited to join a discussion panel.

Some real heavyweights were there: Mr. LVMH, Mr. Tods - some of the biggest money men in the business and 400 paying delegates. So not too intimidating then...

The first day wrapped up with a dinner under the stars and a great after party hosted by Tyler Brule. However, to my mind the evening had only just got going and it was over to the Casino de Monte-Carlo. Lady Luck was with me and after a few hours at the tables the not inconsiderable cost of the trip had been recouped with a little left over for a trip to Hermes on the way to the airport.

A late night in Monte Carlo is not what most people would consider good preparation for going head-to-head with the biggest clothing and watch manufacturers in the world, in front of a paying audience - (as a small factory owner I was on a panel debating the merits of "Owning the process to protect the future") but I seem to have held my own.

In fact, along with someone sharing the helicopter to Monaco with me asking if I "went to work every day like this", I was forwarded an e-mail from the chief exec of Net-a-Porter - sent to him by a Goldman Sachs analyst - saying that she thought our panel was the best bit of the whole conference.

Where's that helicopter, Mish Moneypenny?

Crazy In Love

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:17:27 +0100

Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, oh no no!

Ms. Knowles was kind enough to invite me to her O2 gig last night - and what a show!

Along with some pretty stellar fashion sorts; Alber Elbaz and a newly inflated Thierry Mugler amongst others, we were sat with Roland Mouret and treated to two hours of mind melting R'n'B-ootiliciousness.

Is there anything this girl can't do? From performing acrobatics, suspended above our heads (still belting out the tunes), to strutting the stage, Mugler-clad, like some sort of futuristic super model, we were all blown away.

Who's crazy right now?

Tied In Knots

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:02:20 +0100

I'm having nightmares ever since my mother-in-law identified a virulent plant in the garden as Japanese knotweed. It grows unbelievably fast; you can almost see it growing.

She said two things which have combined to plague me at night: it can break through concrete and if you uproot one, two will grow in its place.

It starts life looking like an asparagus spear and grows straight up to about 10-foot-tall in a matter of months. Reminds me of the Greek myth in which planted dragons' teeth grew into soldiers.

I'm in Italy at the moment preparing for mortal combat when I return.

Catch The Bus

Thu, 28 May 2009 16:32:28 +0100

I had lunch at Busaba on Bird Street yesterday.

By my reckoning, the Busaba restaurants are pound for pound the best restaurants in London. The food is great, and there is a distillation of all the learning from Wagamama: service is rapid and smart and the seating is wonderfully democratic without the utilitarian canteen-ness of Waga's.

But, it is the interiors - done by Aussie architects DCM - that push it to a higher level. As a lover of food, I'm in heaven.

Top dish for me, pumpkin curry with jasmine rice.

www.busaba.com

Boots, books and babies

Wed, 20 May 2009 17:45:44 +0100

In addition to living the gestation of four collections of shoes, the Sanderson household has had a productive 12 months.

As well as having a child (another boy), my wife Rowan launched Park Stories for the Royal Parks - www.parkstories.org.uk - an idea she approached the parks with this time last year (before we could have known the eventual launch date and due date would be the same day!).

The idea was to commission the country's best short story writers to each write a story set in one of the eight Royal Parks. Launched in May for summer reading, they have been a real hit - pass any Daunt Books and you'll see they've taken over the windows (www.dauntbooks.co.uk)!

The hope is that this is going to become an annual event, so find a deck chair and get reading.

Lost In Translation

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:17:13 +0100

I was invited to address the good ladies of Zurich by one of our newer customers: an exciting new store called Lovers Lane (www.loverslane.ch). Armed with only a Sharpie, I threw myself at their mercy. The local Swiss and French press were very sweet and the customers hugely knowledgeable. Fortunately, before I had to address the masses with a few chosen words, a customer told me my shoes were "hingucker" - literal translation "a real eye-catcher". Every time I tried to say it people fell about laughing. I'm sure I'd mangled it into something very rude - hope so!

Things to do in Zurich with 10 minutes to spare - have a Movenpick ice cream and look at the lake.

Les Bicyclettes

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:31:00 +0100

During fashion week my preferred method of transport is the humble bicyclette. I have been staging my very own Tour-de-Fashion using Paris' wonderfully egalitarian Valib' bike system.

They say that in the centre of Paris you are never more than 100 metres from a bike park. You charge up an Oyster-like card for the number of days you want (1 euro per day), and with your own PIN number, voila! You can take, and park your bike from any of the bike stations all over the city. Magnifique!

Omar That's Good!

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:24:28 +0100

Team Sanderson had dinner at one of my favourite Parisian eateries (as it seems did half the fashion pack), Chez Omar. No booking, lots of queuing, softened by a bottle of Brouilly at the bar.

I'll eat my Fez if there is better couscous to be had in all of Paris, though the inside tip is the steak au poivre - sauce the colour of marmalade. Delicious.

47, Rue Bretagne, 75003 Paris, France +33 1 42 72 36 26

Wilde Time In Paris

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:40:25 +0100

I was joined for the weekend of Paris Fashion Week by my family. We booked into a small hotel in Saint Germain-des-Pres which we discovered was the old Hotel d'Alsace. Happily they bumped us up to the room Oscar Wilde spent his last months in.

My literary wife (duty bound to plug the launch of her Park Stories for the Royal Parks in May), was in bookish heaven. This room is the scene of Oscar Wilde's most Wilden epigrams - one month before he died (they've changed the bed and much else since 1900) "I am in a duel to the death with this wallpaper, one of us has got to go".

I took a picture - he had a point.

Kaiser Chuffed!

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:37:30 +0100

Well, I've had my stellar fashion moment. Designing the shoes for Karl Lagerfeld's show on Sunday. The show was great - more 2080's than 1980's (apologies to Tim Blanks). Watching the reactions of the front row as they glanced down at the shoes and boots was fantastic. Back stage was all you wanted it to be - I even heard him name check me to a journalist - if anyone needs me I'll be on cloud 9.

Pop-Up Party in Paris

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:02:01 +0100

And so to Le Bon Marche, the Grande Dame of Parisian department stores, where we were L' Invite - complete with good Champagne and macaroons - to present the summer collection to the good ladies of Paris.

Great evening immersed in that hardest to define fashion cliché "Parisian chic" - but I'll give it a go! It's obviously all about attitude and ancient witchy hand me down tips from mother to daughter. No blue in a month ending in Y and all that. There is a healthy dollop of thrift which, combined with The Rules, results in Parisian women dressing on their own terms, highly knowledgeable of fashion but not pushed around by its seasonal whims. And nowhere provides the where-with-all under better than Le Bon Marche.

When Rupert Met Erin

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:14:55 +0100

What is it called when two bloggers meet and communicate through the old fashion medium of chinwag-over-a-cuppa?

So it was when fellow Vogue blogger and most graceful girl about town Erin O'Connor sashayed by Bruton Towers for a shodding. Erin in 130mm heels - someone needs to invent a new unit of measurement to do justice to those legs!

Also, must give a mention about Le Corbusier at the Barbican - my pick of the current exhibitions. The goggle-binned polymath still gives any young architect a touch of the vapours. Uncompromising and conceptual he was often disregarding of human beings in his thinking (let's flatten half of Paris and build identical tower blocks - err, non let's not).

Despite this, Swiss architect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris - as he is otherwise known, is still hugely influential and inspiring. He paints; he sculpts; makes furniture and designed the most beautiful church of the last 100 years. (www.barbican.org.uk/lecorbusier)

Girls Allowed

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:40:06 +0100

It seems I was at the wrong do on Wednesday night. While I was stroking my beard over at the frightfully important Le Corbusier private view at the Barbican "the girls" were taking over the Brits (don't boys make music anymore?). I was very chuffed to see that Duffy picked up three gongs wearing my shoes!

Antique Lalique

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:23:38 +0100

I can only hold my love of good glass in check for so long. I was innocently using Grays Antiques (www.graysantiques.com ) as a cut through from South Molton Street, when a set of unusual glasses caught my eye. Eight 1930's Lalique champagne glasses: squat quaich-like bowls with small glass bosses round the base to stop your fingers warming the fizz - beautifully designed and perfectly combining form and function - might as well shoot me now.

Cycling Ambition

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:26:27 +0100

I'm toying with getting a bicycle not for any worthy reasons other than to legitimise my love of all things Rapha (www.rapha.cc). Rapha was set up for the purest (read slightly old school) cycle enthusiast - Sir Paul is a noted fan. They shun the normal cycling apparel outlets - there is a real integrity to the company and their clothing - they have their own team, spread the good work through Rapha 'rides' and publish a very handsome magazine called Rouleur (http://rouleur.cc )

To Paris

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:09:27 +0100

I'm working with Karl Lagerfeld this season. Karl approached me a few months ago to discuss the possibility of designing shoes for his autumn/winter 2009-10 show in Paris and I knew straight away it would be a good collaboration. Karl's love of structure and clean lines match my ideas on good design to a T.

It's refreshing to conspire with the big beasts of the fashion industry, if only because they are so damn decisive! No wonder he can do so many jobs at once: everything is a split second decision. More time for fan wafting and teddy bear cuddling.

It's been a great project for Liam Fahy, our Fashion Fringe Shoes winner, to get his teeth stuck into as well, and gives him an insight into how the real big fashion machines work.

I don't want to give too much away on what the final designs are going to be, but keep watching this space because it's going to be big...!

Learning To Trust

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:15:20 +0100

Back from an extended Christmas break and raring to go - I've already spent some quality time at my factory in Italy and things are really going swimmingly.

Part of the Sanderson family Christmas was spent at a Landmark Trust house. The Landmark Trust (http://www.landmarktrust.org.uk) take on many gifted properties that are either run down or just too eccentric for normal use - I refer to the House of Correction, or The Pineapple. They provide an important historical document as all the restoration, chattels and furnishings are done with the greatest of sympathy to the particular building.

In these uncertain economic times I say "Stay British" - the Landmark Trust epitomises what we do best. Ask any American.

Shopaholic

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:31:19 +0100

Shopping has never been one of my great loves but since spending time at Lane Crawford in Hong Kong and particularly Beijing I'm having a wobble. The shops are an essay in retail interiors and put some of our more recognisable places of luxury shopping to shame.

Aside from the brands and how up to the moment the buying and selection is, the spaces and furnishings are truly inspiring. Coinciding with the trip to Hong Kong we were refurbishing our shop in Hans Road. It took all my power not to call the contractors and slam on the breaks immediately while I had a re-think!

There is a real belief in Hong Kong that shopping and the shopper should be respected and honoured. After seeing the Lane Crawford personal shopping suite, my very grand room at the Raffles Hotel seemed a bit mean - I asked if I could move in!

Blogger To Blogger

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:00:46 +0100

I finally got to meet my fellow VOGUE.COM blogger, Erin O'Connor, at her BFA after party at the newly opened and decidedly pre-credit crunch interiored Jalouse.

Over the roar of the crowd and with tongue firmly in cheek, I said how impressed I was at how many friends she had. Very sweetly she told me she was most concerned that a cousin and someone she was at school with had made it - the consumate host.

WATCH ALL THE AWARDS ACTION ON VOGUETV

READ THE FULL LIST OF WINNERS

SEE ALL THE FASHION STARS ON THE RED CARPET - AND FIND OUT WHO WORE WHAT

The British Fashion Awards

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:29:26 +0100

Well, I won the BFC Accessory Designer of the Year yesterday, which was nice.

I've never won a proper gong before and probably, like most people, the seconds before they made the announcement, the last place on earth I wanted to be was on a podium saying a few off the cuff words in front of 400 or so fashion types. But hell, someone's got to do it and I felt greatly honoured and immensely proud of my amazing team.

Nine tenths of what I do is down to them - the other tenth felt pretty good last night.

SEE OUR PHOTO GALLERY OF ALL THE AWARD WINNERS HERE

798

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:35:16 +0100

I've increasingly become interested in contemporary art so on a recent trip to Beijing I was determined to get to visit the 798 Dashanzi Art District.

After about a half hour cab ride out to the north east of the city, you're there. The area is an ex-electronics factory compound, sprawling over an area the size of Chelsea (everything seems to be on a monumental scale in China).

It's a cauldron of design, photography and art housed in well over 100 galleries and spaces ranging from the (relatively) petite to the stadium sized. Check out ullens-center.org for a flavour.

Whilst the buildings exude a post-communist architectural grit, what the gallerists have done with the spaces is fantastic and hyper cool - some with the original Mao slogans still painted on the walls. So cool, in fact Dior were hosting a show in one of the spaces the day after I was there. If you find yourself in Beijing with half a day to spare (as you do), it's worth a trip.

Sam The Man

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:01:34 +0100

The fashion business' love of all things bespoke is well known, so it was with some delight that, on a recent trip to Hong Kong, I had a chance to visit my father's old tailor.

I was wearing a pair of true vintage red golfing trousers my father had had made there 34 years earlier. Sam's a legend and proved to be a wonderful antidote to the miles and miles of gleaming be-branded shopping malls that have sprung up in Hong Kong over the last 10 years.

The process and service was seamless (well, lots of seams actually). The speed and precision of Sam's work is in refreshingly stark contrast to the fuss that tends to be made over the process of making a bespoke suit in this country.

They use the same cloth as Savile Row's finest, and measuring up to first fitting happened in the time it took me to walk to and from the Peninsula Hotel for an early evening G&T. He even threw in a tie for the old man - how's that for service?

Changing Shoes

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 09:00:00 +0100

I sense a sea of change. The chap I make my heels with in Italy is the best in the business (nach). Our relationship has been forged over engine capacities and the tapits of old British motorbikes.

He has built up one of the most important collections of vintage TT racers in the world and as a reformed petrol head ('68 Triumph Bonneville T120 US custom now you ask), this proves a wonderfully masculine distraction.

Breaking off briefly to discuss the business in hand, he looked at me in despair to say that over the past few years he has been asked to make some of the strangest and most complicated heels of his life yet. Magari! Ma di! They never make it to anything like the production numbers you would expect. Are women trying to tell us something...?

Under The Hammer

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:00:00 +0100

Off to the Outset NSPCC dinner at Philips de Pury and Company in their cavernous space in Victoria - set amongst the 200 or so lots of mid-century modernity to go under the hammer the next day.

The dinner was organised by the stylish and hyper-dynamic Yana Peel (literally she lives in London, Moscow and Hong Kong all at the same time). We both started our respective endeavours at the same time and I've witnessed her ascendance to one of the art world's real shakers with her Outset Art Fund (www.outset.org) which has programmes from buying work from the Frieze Artfair for the Tate, to workshops and studio visits.

Following an inappropriate drooling incident over a Gio Ponti 12-piece cutlery set, I put my hand deep into my pocket for a beautiful vase made by Tomas Kral. Kral is a recent graduate from the Ecole Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne (ECAL) in Switzerland, who deeply etches reclaimed bottles and jars and turns them into exquisite pieces. Very Morandi. Have a look http://libby.pvmm-design.no-ip.com/designers/designer.php?designer=Tomas_Kral&img_num=1.

Fashion Fringe Shoes

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:00:00 +0100

Setting up Fashion Fringe Shoes with Colin McDowell has been one of the highlights of 2008. After seeing the incredible talents of the four finalists at the Fashion Fringe show last Thursday, I felt pretty damn pleased to be supporting this great cause.

Liam Fahy won Fashion Fringe Shoes last June and he's literally been thrown into the deep end back in London, after his three dreamy first weeks at my factory in Bologna. Liam's got his sleeves rolled up tight and his huge creative talents are being put to work all over the business. He looks like he's relishing this opportunity, and for me, it's refreshing to be able to work with such a young and enthusiastic mind.

The boy got talent, and we've already created some corkers for autumn/winter 2009. Watch this space.

London Fashion Week

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:00:00 +0100

I must admit I'm happy that London Fashion Week isn't being reduced to the length of our English summer (all four days of it!). There's definitely something about London when the sun is shining that you just don't get in any other city - it certainly seemed to bring out the best of our Londonistas, who were all strutting their stuff in the capital over fashion week.

It seems to have been and gone so quickly - oh, the joy of being a ready-to-wear designer, putting heart and soul into a collection which rests on a five minute show, slotted in at some point during all the mayhem.

Parties, store openings and Champers aside, the highlight of the week had to be Louise Goldin's show. The talented Miss Goldin approached me a few months ago to do the shoes for her collection and I was so bowled over by her imaginitive, innovative designs, I couldn't resist getting involved.

Steering clear of all things "backstage" at the show didn't stop me feeling the buzz as the lights went down and the show began. The collection was fab, and the shoes topped (or should I say "bottomed"!?) it off nicely. On my way out of the show, I bumped into a very merry Roisin Murphey who has recently become a fan - check out the shoes in her next video.

Lowlight of the week? Kings of Leon failing to show at the packed out Acne party. Must remember that trick for our next event.

Baby Steps

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:00:00 +0100

My two-year-old son, John Valentine, has taken to slipping into a pair of my wife's (or should that be "my"?) shoes.

His current favourites are a wooden wedge sandal from spring/summer 2008, which make an unholy racket when clacked around on a wooden landing at 6am!

The Lure Of Italy - And Hollywood

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 09:00:00 +0100

One of the inescapable things about making the sort of shoes I do is that you have spend a lot of time in Italy - this is what I love doing and this is ultimately where I love being. From the time I entered into the shoe business, I have worked with the same factory and two years ago, through a happy coincidence of star allegiance, blissful ignorance of Italian bureaucracy (do you have any idea what a Notary does?), and cold hard Euros, it became my factory.

I now travel physically and mentally between London and Bologna almost at will (our computers are on the same server so I'm told). I feel that I lead a sort of double life which is perhaps why I'm so interested in Sir Richard Eyre's new film, The Other Man, which sees Laura Linney play a shoe designer who conducts an affair with Antonio Banderas' character while on her work trips to Italy.

Linney spent some time with me so as to pick up a few "characterisation" tips - sadly I only knew about making shoes in Italy and nothing about conducting affairs with Zorro! I also made all the shoes for the film so we are waiting with bated breath for a release date.

A Fleeting New Musical Obsession

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 15:00:00 +0100

At the moment, I'm kind of dabbling in the New Folk Movement which takes its inspiration from musicians like Dylan, Fahey and Pentangle. As a die hard soulster, this feels somewhat fay and disloyal.

The Fleet Foxes just blow my socks (and sandals) off with their melodies. Paul Lester has recently described them as having the "most uniquely beautiful sound you'll hear this year" and I pretty much agree. They are the melancholic Beach Boys of today. I've managed to snaffle a pair of tickets to see them in November at the Shepherds Bush Empire (http://www.myspace.com/fleetfoxes).

I'm thinking of adding the Cambridge Folk Festival to the Sanderson family calendar next year, but who knows? I could well have moved on musically by then! Watch this space.

Art Mobbery

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:00:00 +0100

Today is the day that the gallery we have been hosting in our Bruton Place store moves out. When I first took over the lease of Bruton Place it was always part of the plan to occasionally transform the space into an art gallery, give it over to book signings and host interesting events - it only took four years to get around to actually doing it! I feel it was a real success - especially due to the hour long queue that formed outside during the opening night.

The T1+2 Gallery, normally based on Hereford Street, London E2, is run by the fabulously named artist, Wolfe von Lenkiewicz and curator Lisa K Samoto, who flows with a swan-like grace. They installed La Bete: Or the Object of Desire, an exhibition which paid homage to Walerian Borowczyk's controversial film La Bete.

The private view was a hit. To get technical: "We woz mobbed: Chapmans, Camerons, Putnams and Fawcetts all over the gaff!"

Bruton Place was so packed the taxis couldn't get through - it was a truly special London moment: cabbies in slanging matches with the paps, who in turn were shoving through the hoards trying to get a good snap.

After a week of hearing the looped video installation by Zatorski+Zatorski, of copulating Peacock butterflies set to Mahler's Tristan und Isolde (which was actually pretty spectacular), we are looking forward to turning the place back into a tranquil shoe haven.

Cracking America

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:00:00 +0100

The new fashion term feels like it really gets going today - I'm off to New York to help parade the new collection to buyers and the press. It's a trip I always look forward to (only slightly marred this time by the news that Andy Murray lost the US grand slam).

It's an important moment for us in New York right now - after years of knocking, Bergdorf Goodman has opened its doors and I'm booked to do an in-store appearance. I've done a few of these but this one feels very significant - it's almost a milestone for us. Note to self: women buy shoes because it makes them feel sexy, not because they are in love with the craft of making shoes!

As well as the rounds of appointments, parties and rooftop swims in the Soho House pool, I am curious to see The Citizens Band - a kind of politicised vaudeville act that I've heard very good things about. They're on at Spiegeltent, South Street Seaport, Pier 17, which is always an interesting venue for a gig. It's the heart of New York's 19th century seaport, and always buzzing. Watch this space for the review...