Heart and sole of fashion

Jimmy Choo's 10-centimeter heels.

Choi remembers that during the early days, when she was speaking to her mother about going to Los Angeles, covering the Academy Awards and dressing the celebrities, all her mom said in response: "What does it have to do with you?".

But before the foundational course got serious, the only hand at the mom-and-pop store had been "too engaged" in all kinds of work, making shoes, picking up the phones and speaking to stylists who wanted to borrow shoes. As a result, the then 19-year-old quit school after six weeks and worked full time, thinking she could always go back to school later, though she never did.

One of the "amazing things" that kept her "drawn to the industry" for decades is that, as a female in the male-dominated shoe-making industry in Italy, where most of the Jimmy Choos have been made, she got to make shoes in the way she believes they should be produced.

"Thinking about doing certain things, and it happens, and happens through collaboration, is appealing, and I still love it," as she puts it, joking that otherwise she "would not be sitting here" (in the sprawling Jing'an Suite of the dubbed urban resort Puli Hotel in downtown Shanghai).

The tough, or the not so "lovable" part, of the job, for the designer - who seems overwhelmed with, rather than out of - ideas, is to make a choice for every seasonal collection. Everything in life - a trip, a photo or even an hour in a streetside cafe watching people - is inspirational for her.

There is always the thought that, "if I hold this back and shift it to another collection, would I miss that slot". But at the end of the day, she consoles herself with the thought, "it's still business", aside from all the fantasy and creativity.