Young Shoe Designers Are Getting Better - Jimmy Choo

KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian shoe industry, especially local designers, are becoming better at their trade, said international shoe designer Prof Datuk Dr Jimmy Choo.

Further, he said more talented young designers are appearing and they bring with them a strong passion and a willingness to learn.

"In the old days, we needed a lot of designers from different countries and employed them here to work with local factories. But now we have young, talented designers coming back here to serve the country. But they need to have a chance, an opportunity to move forward," he told a press conference here today.

He added that with the young designers’ initiatives, Malaysia''s shoe designs are now up to the standards compared to those seen in the past 25 years.

"Young people travel around the world to see what people are doing. In our old days, they (young shoe designers) copied other people''s ideas. Now the young generation is different. They travel, they study abroad, they work in the design houses, they have experience. They see things and they come back to their own country and build their own designs," explained Choo.

Choo said he was doing all he could to help the industry emerge, such as bringing international designers from the United Kingdom (UK) to Malaysia to meet local designers.

"They met, they reviewed and exchanged ideas, they worked together," he said.

Apart from that, Choo also financed students to study at the International School of Creative Arts in the United Kingdom, where he is the Honorary President.

Also, he said the students will have the opportunity to work at his couture shop there to gain experience.

He said, with the help from the Malaysian Footware Manufacturers (MFMA), they are planning to bring traditional shoemakers to the country and ask them to teach local manufacturers how to create handcrafted shoes.

"Once you know how to create handcrafted shoes, you can do it the simple way, the Malaysian style. But the foundation has to be strong first," he said.

To his admirers who wanted to be like him, Jimmy said it has not been easy.

"You have to work long hours, you have to accept people who criticise you, put on a fashion show and so on. But if I can assist someone who is willing to work hard and wants to do good things for the country, but doesn’t have enough funds, I will finance them to study in the UK. The school is there, I am there and my shop is there, as well," he said.

MFMA President Tony Ting said the Malaysia International Shoe Festival 2011, to be held from 7-10 April, is a good platform to educate the public about the country’s shoe industry.

He said there will be time set aside during the show to demonstrate the shoemaking process to show visitors how a pair of shoes are made.

"We want to teach our younger generation the potential of shoe designing and how it can be so interesting and so enterprising, sometimes. We have so many successful homegrown brands and they are all coming back to support this festival.

"We want to let the parents of the students know that shoe designing can be a big business ... because we are really short of good designers now. We hope to have more very exciting opportunities for up and coming young designers.

"We also want them to know that the industry is here to support them," he said.
-- BERNAMA

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