My early afteroon romance with Stuart Weitzman

(I wrote the original interview in Hebrew, and posted it here on Bamoda.co.il: http://www.bamoda.co.il/fashion/Articles.aspx?id=685). Here’s my translation of it to English :

Friday. Time – a little after lunch time. Location – Shuster Center in Ramat-Aviv, Tel-Aviv. One shop, many many dressed up and elegant looking women flirting around the legendary shoes designer, Stuart Weitzman, whom among his clients you can easily recognize Angelina Jolie, Sarah Jessica Parker, Cameron Diaz and many more, and is now standing in the middle of his shop in the center called “Mashik”. Tanned, athletic, in a stripes shirt and semi-denim leading directly to a big surprise – New Balance trainers. Gotta love him. Thanks to the common Jewish warmth and smiley attitude, it somehow went well with the many litters of champagne and cherries served during the entire event.

That was how they’ve all gathered – most of Israel’s top fashion celebrities and icons – from Nicole Helperin and Hanny Perry to Orna Naner, editor in chief of “LaIsha” magazine and head of fashion design department in Shenkar college.

We all share one major fetish – our eternal love for shoes. Stuart arrived just in time for our mingling. At the age of 67, as an American Jew who loves Israel, he came here for a visit at the Maccabiya  games as a ping-pong player in the American team. He started his talk by saying that he enjoys helping Israel more and more each time he comes here, and that he comes here every time he wants to feel good. As the greetings and talk ended, he started giving private interviews to us, the fashion reporters, who waited anxiously for our turn in line, after the photographers.

Your father designed and made shoes all his life and you inherited his business when you were very young. Have you ever imagined yourself doing something else but shoes?

“When my father died, my older brother naturally took over the business. The problem was, that he knew how to make shoes, but knew nothing about design. Back in those days I was sure that I was heading towards Wall Street. Since I have always painted and sketched, my brother asked me to sketch a few models for him, just to get him started. A few weeks later, he walked me to see a store window on 5th Avenue where my shoes are on display. I was overwhelmed to see a woman buying one of my pairs, and since then I never stopped designing shoes.”

How do you differentiate yourself as a unique designer in such a competitive market?

I give my personal signature to every shoe I make. Each one of my designs has my smile and my feeling which I wanted to give it.”

Where do you find your strongest inspiration?

“I’m inspired by women. I enjoy looking at women from all sorts of types. I find them all fascinating.”

Why do you think women love shoes so much?

“Oh, that’s simple. You were all brainwashed at a very young age. Try to recall the first children fairytale you were told. I’m sure it’s Cinderella. And then came Dorothy of Oz. Don’t you see? It’s all about shoes. That’s brainwash. Which I admit to enjoy every day of my life.” He laughs.

Out of simple curiosity – how many pairs of shoes does your wife has?

He starts laughing again. “It’ll be much easier to reply if you’d ask me how many shoes closets does she have. Many. And much more than that.”

I have decided to end this lovely interview with a bold attempt and asked Stuart to sketch a shoe just for me. He said Yes “Sure”, he says, “you have the typical Jackie O meets Audrie Hepburn style – both never needed high heeled shoes to make them feel sexier and self-confident.”

Here is my sketch!

And here we are while he sketched it for me (Credit to this pic: PR )

And that’s it. I had fun! I hope you all liked it

Hilla Ohayon.