Jimmy Choo On Bridal Collection, New London Boutique, Dressing Princess Diana

We might know Jimmy Choo for his shoe line, but the designer has moved on from his namesake brand since he sold it in 2001. Most recently, he debuted his latest bridal collection at Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week under the design name, The Atelier.

His new Autumn Winter couture bridal collection is called Thy Love and is inspired by a book of poetry by Rabindranath Tagore—the first Asian Nobel Laureate—called Stray Birds, which is centered around love.

“It’s a story about love and rebirth,” said Choo over the phone from London, where he teaches at the London Fashion Academy.

“It’s a story about the rebirth after the Covid-19 pandemic, everyone wants to be loved and cared for. The story of it comes from Rabindranath Tagore, a poet and writer. I read his book Stray Birds, which focuses on caring about art, nature and the environment. It’s inspired by that story.”

The new collection features elegant, crystal-embedded styles with traditional touches, flower motifs, sparkles and hoods. Everything has a fairytale-like, magical feel to it. There’s a poetic message hidden in the collection, according to Choo. “We have to encourage people to love each other and care about the natural environment,” he said. “In my family, we use storytelling to share love.”

Choo was born as Zhou Yang Jie in Malaysia in 1948, his father was a shoe designer and he grew up learning the craft, watching his father making shoes from raw materials. “That’s how I learned,” he said.

Choo started his brand in London in the 1990s, catering to Hollywood celebrities and royals like Princess Diana. He remembers working with Princess Diana, too.

“It was over 20 years ago, quite some time,” said Choo. “I remember I always had this lady who loved me, supported me and cared about me.”

He met Princess Diana through his friend, fashion designer Tomasz Starzewski, who asked him to design a pair of shoes for her. He was surprised, unsure if she would wear his shoes, but found out her shoe size and made her a pair of heels. “I told Tomasz, ‘When you send Princess Diana a dress, give her my shoes, too,’” said Choo. “After I sent her the shoes, the next day I saw them in the newspaper. Thank goodness for Thomas.”

For the following seven years, Choo would visit Princess Diana in Kensington Palace. “I would sit with her and have tea and biscuits,” he said. “I drank the English tea, but I was too nervous to have the biscuits. She was very kind and down to earth. She always asked me how my mom and dad were doing.”

There was one rule, however. “She never wore sandals,” said Choo. “Princess Diana never let me design open toe sandals for her. She didn’t think she had nice toes.”

Choo left his namesake company in 2001, and his niece Sandra Choi is the creative director. During his time at his brand, he was a pioneer of dressing celebrities on the red carpet, from Nicole Kidman to Emma Stone and Jennifer Lopez in a time when Hollywood celebrities were used to dressing themselves. It was long before stylists and brands took control.

Today, he still makes couture shoes under his birth name, Zhou Yang Jie, for private clients. He is opening a couture boutique in London called The Atelier this summer.

Meanwhile, he will still be teaching his students at the fashion academy. He always teaches them to excel in their own individual way. “For every good idea I have had in fashion, I have thrown away a hundred,” he says. “Whatever you do in life, you have to do it well.”