The actress and designer talks to Tatler about what she considers when designing shoes for her brand, SJP Collection, and shares how she styles her shoes
Sarah Jessica Parker had always wanted to launch a shoe brand—perhaps influenced by her shopaholic character Carrie Bradshaw from the stylistically iconic show, Sex and the City, which ran from 1998 to 2004 and spawned two feature films.
Parker herself has been a footwear collector since the ’80s. Her new line, SJP Collection, exclusively available at Lane Crawford, came to be from years of wearing countless pairs and eventually wanting to establish her own footprint in the fashion industry. Parker tells Tatler about her experience setting up her brand, where she found design inspiration and who made her fall in love with shoes in the first place.
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How and why did you start your own shoe brand?
Getting into the footwear business was something that had been of interest to me for a while, but I first needed to find the perfect partner. In my mind, that was always George Malkemus III [who helped launch Manolo Blahnik in the US].
When I finally worked up the courage to pick up the phone and run the idea by him, I was prepared for him to say no. Instead, he told me to meet him at his office the next morning at 9am. And, just like that, SJP Collection was born.
Would you want to expand your product range to include fashion and accessories?
Absolutely! We’ve already dabbled a bit in apparel and accessories, but we are excited to continue exploring these and other categories and have had many discussions about doing so.
Footwear will always be the bread and butter of our business, but we look forward to continuing to expand.
