Blahnik still has a close working relationship with her uncle, who remains the company’s creative director and chair. She watched his work ethic closely, as well as her mother’s. In the early years she “just wanted to learn everything” from them.
The busiest time creatively is the development of new shoe ranges, which “involves me completely immersing myself in the design process”, she says. Manolo works on collections twice a year and Kristina then develops these into four.
She says a team of five work together to understand the “commercial and creative” needs of a new range. She will then “respond with hand-sketching new styles to supplement Manolo’s collections, including market exclusives”.
“They’re very much part of Manolo, and I think they’re now part of both of us,” she says.
Blahnik is aware that running a family business is “a very privileged place to be” but it is also a challenge. She believes the second generation is one of the most important roles for longevity.
“You’ve got the first generation of founders and creators, they’re the ones that have the dream. I see my role as making sure I . . . create all the structures around it [to] exist beyond my lifetime, beyond all of our lifetimes. If there’s a third generation, they can know what they’ve got to do.”
Blahnik lived in Cologne before she moved to the UK with her mother when she was six. Her upbringing was shaped by her uncle’s creative flair and her mother’s business pragmatism and she has found herself at the confluence of art and mathematics ever since her school years. She studied both art and maths at A-levels, as well as German economics.