I used to sock hop to 'Crocodile Rock' and stare at those platform boots on the album cover.
Archives can be inspiring but overwhelming. You have to forget them - especially when the whole world has been knocking them off. Everyone shops the same flea markets.
It is all about quality of life and being proud of what I do. I need me to be me.
I lived in Nigeria, Chad, and Cameroon when I was very young, until my mother divorced my father.
After selling the business, and the Patrick Cox brand in 2007, I had a three-year non-compete, where I just spent a lot of time hanging all over the world on beaches and having fun.
I love Italy, and that's where I make my own shoes. But the French really do respect designers. Italy is totally different; footwear is an industry. The shoes are all about craft and luxury. French shoes are more about straight lines, and they are way more geometric.
I was wondering if the best was behind me, had the high point of my career already happened. Then I saw what Manolo had done, and some of his best work happened after he turned 40.
Shoe design is like architecture - with the finest structure and tight, precise seams, it suits my obsessive neatness.
I couldn't have asked for a better testimonial than Bob Dylan parting with his own cash for a pair of my shoes.
