Her club ready couture not only looks spectacular, each custom piece has been made with Beyoncé’s three hour set—and frequent outfit changes—in mind. Comfort and function were top of mind for Sandra Choi, creative director at Jimmy Choo, when she was tasked with creating 41 bespoke pairs of shoes for the Renaissance tour. “We’re there as a supporting act,” Choi tells Vogue. “Our team was a part that she needed to trust—to provide her with security and finesse.” “We hear they fit like a glove!” Choi says of the silver Jimmy Choo pumps Beyoncé can be seen wearing on stage in Paris. Having supplied the superstar with shoes for events, album visuals and magazine shoots for nearly two decades (Queen B wore Jimmy Choo on the cover of British Vogue’s December 2020 issue), this time the brand needed to provide footwear that not only looked fabulous, but could hold up through the intense choreography. Choi reveals that heel heights were a particularly important consideration, and she researched styles Beyoncé had previously worn on stage, as well as adding boning in the bespoke boots—“like a corset”—to ensure they stay in place and feel extra secure. Though Choi is yet to meet Mrs Carter herself, she worked closely with the singer’s team, who provided precise measurements, preferred color palettes and specific requests (she was asked to create something that “really sparkled” in line with the disco ball heavy Renaissance theme, for example). “It’s fashion based, but I had to think about the functionality of it,” she explains of the process. “There’s lots of things we did especially for Beyoncé, to make sure that the footwear works for her on stage.”
The commission was unique, in that Jimmy Choo had no insight into when specific shoes might be worn and with what. “We trusted all the things we knew already,” Choi explains. “Our job was to provide a variety for her styling team and to deliver the right finish, even though we don’t even know which outfits [the shoes might] be styled with. It’s very much been a collaboration.” Angelo Baque, founder of the laid back brand Awake New York, never felt gung ho about opening a retail space. But his plans changed after the late designer Virgil Abloh gave him some advice. “He told me I had to open up a store,” Baque says of the conversation, which took place in 2020. “Virgil had taken a walk around downtown New York and digested the retail landscape. He was just like, ‘Something is missing. It doesn’t feel like the 2003 New York that I used to come to as a kid from Chicago.’” Baque recalls Abloh name checking his favorite stores from the time period Nom De Guerre, Rivington Club North, Union. “All of these legendary retail spaces,” Baque said. “He was like, you basically owe it to the kids to open up a store.”
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