Abodes within Bangkok don’t come much more uplifting than a penthouse suite in the city’s Peninsula Hotel. Perched proudly at the crown of the property, the plush furnishings in the duplex device exude a comfortable, somewhat old-school, sense associated with luxe grandeur.
An outdoor terrace having a jacuzzi and widescreen views of the enormous Chao Phraya River and the city’s space-age skyline would put a spring within anyone’s step. And CNA Luxury had been getting insight into the room’s restorative qualities as Jimmy Choo greets us. Our own encounter with the renowned shoe designer has been delayed, affording the particular 73-year-old some time in order to rest between appointments.
But the doyen associated with handmade women’s shoes shows no exhaustion when he increases for our introductions. Resplendent in a blue tailored suit and a shiny pair of black leather slip-ons – self-designed naturally – he bounces nimbly across the table.
He guides us to the window-side table where we will perform our chat plus regales us using a stream of anecdotes along the way.
Topics range from a Scottish solitary malt sampling session with footballer Brian Beckham to their distaste for the The english language “delicacy” of jellied eels – an aversion he nurtured as a gastronomy-deprived Penangite Chinese stranded in East London within the late 1970s.
“I got my official education as a developer at Cordwainers Specialized College in Hackney, ” he remembered. “There wasn’t lots of good Chinese food in that part of London at the time, and that was obviously a big deal for me. I actually couldn’t get used to how people talked, also it took me ages to locate a good place regarding Singapore fried rice! ”
The vagaries of the British diet aside, Choo’s decision to plump for Greater london as a base more than other fashion capitals such as Milan, Paris and New York failed to turn out too terribly. His diamante-encrusted trip from Georgetown, Penang, to one-man backstreet atelier, to a shoemaker to stars plus royalty is the things of fashion fantasy.