Nowadays, Jimmy Choo is a household name, with everyone from Jennifer Lopez to the Princess of Wales being among the luxury shoe brand’s high-profile fans. But it was another royal who was credited for putting the label on the map back in the day: Princess Diana.
Specifically, it was when the former Princess of Wales wore a pair of pale-blue satin sling-backs by the Malaysian shoemaker, alongside a glittering Catherine Walker minidress, for a performance of Swan Lake at the Royal Albert Hall in June 1997. “It really started everything for us,” Jimmy Choo’s creative director Sandra Choi previously said.
The sling-back represented a more daring choice for Diana, who struck up a close friendship with Jimmy Choo after he began designing shoes for her in the early ’90s, when he began visiting her at her Kensington Palace home. “The sling-back style was of the moment,” Choi tells Vogue now. “It was an evolution of the ’80s court shoe, but a more modern, lighter interpretation, with a covered toe. This style worked so well for occasion dressing, being less formal than a pump.”
As with many of Diana’s custom Choos over the years, the sling-back was created especially to match her baby-blue Catherine Walker number. “This was commonplace in the ’90s—if you worked with a couture designer, your shoes perfectly matched,” Choi explains. The former Princess of Wales would always make sure her heels struck the right note, which is why the satin sling-backs were relatively simple in comparison to the dazzling embellishment on her dress. “Diana always did a great job of balancing her looks, considering all details—if she had a bold look her footwear was more refined,” Choi continues. “If her dress was simple, she would add interest with her footwear and accessories.”
The height of the former Princess of Wales’s shoes also increased over the years as she gained confidence (just as her jewelry choices became bolder, too). “When she first started wearing Jimmy Choo, it was a court shoe style in a lower heel height of 2.5 inches, but as time went by she [began] walking in higher heels that were classic styles with a twist,” Choi explains.
The sling-back style remains just as popular now as it was back then—with Princess Diana’s Jimmy Choos being the ultimate inspiration. “Even at the time, you could tell her style was timeless, which is why it’s cited as a reference time and time again,” Choi concludes.