Jimmy Baldinini enjoys looking at women's legs. The veteran of Italian shoe design, who runs the world-renowned shoe label Baldinini, admits this addiction without so much as a blink of the eye or any hint of embarrassment — and rightly so: He is a master shoemaker.
Baldinini, however, is very much a sophisticate. How about guessing a woman's character by the pair of shoes she is wearing? This kind of game is hard for the designer to resist, and he says he hardly ever makes a mistake. Sitting at a bar in St. Petersburg's Taleon hotel just before the Russian premiere of Baldinini's 2012 Spring/Summer collection, Baldinini accepts the challenge of demonstrating his art of divination.
A petite, athletic young woman is chosen as the subject. Her long dark hair is worn loose, half covering her back, which is almost fully exposed by a revealing black dress. She is wearing a pair of Cinderella-sized varnished black peep-toes with stiletto heels. She is a PR manager for the St. Petersburg branch of a large Western company.
"Wow, an extremely ambitious girl; she wants to be among the cream of the crop, and she is unstoppable," Baldinini begins, with a mixture of caution and admiration. "She is quite brave, a risk-taker, and she has got a grip of steel." The designer could not be more accurate.laptopbagfactory
Baldinini was in town to present his spring and summer collection, but during the interview, his mind constantly returns to the high-heeled winter boots that he is convinced will become a sensation next winter.authenticguccihandbags
"They will make the girl feel and look like an elf; I created this model especially for Russian women — a stiletto heel, long and tight — whoever chooses them will look like a goddess!"
Russians are Baldinini's core clientele. They account for more than two thirds of the brand's customers, and constitute his dream shoppers. There is no way, he says, that the average American woman would be interested in the stiletto-heeled winter boots that I created for Russia, even if we paid them to wear these boots!
"Americans typically go for comfortable, casual and inexpensive fare; unlike in Russia, there is not much demand in the U.S. for fashionable, statement shoes," Baldinini said. Indeed, Russia boasts one of the highest proportions of women who wear high heels on a daily basis, and much of the country's female population is convinced that comfortable, flat shoes are suitable only for an arthritis-suffering babushka, and that, unless your physical condition requires you to wear those, a better bet by far is glossy stilettos.
Baldinini openly approves of the Russian attitude, which has been instrumental in filling his coffers since his company entered the Russian market in 2000.
"Russia has been my key market — along with Italy and Saudi Arabia — because you have the biggest numbers of fashion-conscious people, which is unbelievable. For me, Russia is a paradise: As a designer,coachhandbags I enjoy making striking, mind-blowing shoes, and not everyone has the courage and the confidence to wear those. In Russia, the appetite for them is huge!"
Every year, Baldinini's company creates more than a thousand different designs, creating individual collections for the various countries in which it operates.
In recent months, the designer has been contemplating the idea of conquering the vast Chinese market,rolexshop but the results of market research have left him deeply frustrated.
"When I visit China and watch people shopping, I cannot believe my eyes: They just grab anything that has a label on it. Baldinini is indeed a brand, and therefore it would sell there, but they miss the point about the essence of a particular brand.canadagooseparkajackets In other words, if you rip off the label, the customers would ignore your product. This is bewildering."
As the conversation turns to "the power of the label" territory, Baldinini's sore point becomes clear. The designer suddenly explodes with an emotional diatribe about the competition between the Italians and the French for the status of the world's cradle of fashion.
"The French would do well in China because they are good at selling brands and explaining to customers that such and such a French label is an absolute necessity," he said. "Good sales of Italian fashion are due to the quality, while in France they are much better at marketing than at product-making! But when you are in a shop, they treat you in such a way that if you do not buy the item, you feel like either a person of no taste, or a pauper and loser."
"I recently saw a Louis Vuitton bag selling for something like 3,500 euros; it was a very average bag, and I can bet that if you removed the label, it wouldn't sell even for 350 euros," said Baldinini. "Perhaps one mistake that we Italians make is that we believe that quality always speaks for itself. It is not always the case. Unfortunately, customers who want to shop for labels are blind."
There is so much passion and wounded pride in this verbal torrent that it seems prudent to bring the designer back to the idea of winning over the Chinese market. Baldinini does not seem like someone who gives up easily.
"Yes, I am considering another trip to China," he said. "Yes, it is a country where there are fakes galore and the fashion market as such does not really exist. But after all, who said that it cannot be created? At any rate, I am not admitting defeat."
Baldinini, however, is very much a sophisticate. How about guessing a woman's character by the pair of shoes she is wearing? This kind of game is hard for the designer to resist, and he says he hardly ever makes a mistake. Sitting at a bar in St. Petersburg's Taleon hotel just before the Russian premiere of Baldinini's 2012 Spring/Summer collection, Baldinini accepts the challenge of demonstrating his art of divination.
A petite, athletic young woman is chosen as the subject. Her long dark hair is worn loose, half covering her back, which is almost fully exposed by a revealing black dress. She is wearing a pair of Cinderella-sized varnished black peep-toes with stiletto heels. She is a PR manager for the St. Petersburg branch of a large Western company.
"Wow, an extremely ambitious girl; she wants to be among the cream of the crop, and she is unstoppable," Baldinini begins, with a mixture of caution and admiration. "She is quite brave, a risk-taker, and she has got a grip of steel." The designer could not be more accurate.laptopbagfactory
Baldinini was in town to present his spring and summer collection, but during the interview, his mind constantly returns to the high-heeled winter boots that he is convinced will become a sensation next winter.authenticguccihandbags
"They will make the girl feel and look like an elf; I created this model especially for Russian women — a stiletto heel, long and tight — whoever chooses them will look like a goddess!"
Russians are Baldinini's core clientele. They account for more than two thirds of the brand's customers, and constitute his dream shoppers. There is no way, he says, that the average American woman would be interested in the stiletto-heeled winter boots that I created for Russia, even if we paid them to wear these boots!
"Americans typically go for comfortable, casual and inexpensive fare; unlike in Russia, there is not much demand in the U.S. for fashionable, statement shoes," Baldinini said. Indeed, Russia boasts one of the highest proportions of women who wear high heels on a daily basis, and much of the country's female population is convinced that comfortable, flat shoes are suitable only for an arthritis-suffering babushka, and that, unless your physical condition requires you to wear those, a better bet by far is glossy stilettos.
Baldinini openly approves of the Russian attitude, which has been instrumental in filling his coffers since his company entered the Russian market in 2000.
"Russia has been my key market — along with Italy and Saudi Arabia — because you have the biggest numbers of fashion-conscious people, which is unbelievable. For me, Russia is a paradise: As a designer,coachhandbags I enjoy making striking, mind-blowing shoes, and not everyone has the courage and the confidence to wear those. In Russia, the appetite for them is huge!"
Every year, Baldinini's company creates more than a thousand different designs, creating individual collections for the various countries in which it operates.
In recent months, the designer has been contemplating the idea of conquering the vast Chinese market,rolexshop but the results of market research have left him deeply frustrated.
"When I visit China and watch people shopping, I cannot believe my eyes: They just grab anything that has a label on it. Baldinini is indeed a brand, and therefore it would sell there, but they miss the point about the essence of a particular brand.canadagooseparkajackets In other words, if you rip off the label, the customers would ignore your product. This is bewildering."
As the conversation turns to "the power of the label" territory, Baldinini's sore point becomes clear. The designer suddenly explodes with an emotional diatribe about the competition between the Italians and the French for the status of the world's cradle of fashion.
"The French would do well in China because they are good at selling brands and explaining to customers that such and such a French label is an absolute necessity," he said. "Good sales of Italian fashion are due to the quality, while in France they are much better at marketing than at product-making! But when you are in a shop, they treat you in such a way that if you do not buy the item, you feel like either a person of no taste, or a pauper and loser."
"I recently saw a Louis Vuitton bag selling for something like 3,500 euros; it was a very average bag, and I can bet that if you removed the label, it wouldn't sell even for 350 euros," said Baldinini. "Perhaps one mistake that we Italians make is that we believe that quality always speaks for itself. It is not always the case. Unfortunately, customers who want to shop for labels are blind."
There is so much passion and wounded pride in this verbal torrent that it seems prudent to bring the designer back to the idea of winning over the Chinese market. Baldinini does not seem like someone who gives up easily.
"Yes, I am considering another trip to China," he said. "Yes, it is a country where there are fakes galore and the fashion market as such does not really exist. But after all, who said that it cannot be created? At any rate, I am not admitting defeat."
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