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Jimmy Choo at a graduate show of students from the JCA Fashion Academy in London, the design and business program he founded in 2021.
Dave Bennett | JCA London Fashion Academy | Getty Images
From British royalty to Hollywood stars, Jimmy Choo luxury shoes have been worn by countless celebrities on red carpets around the world.
Now Choo is helping the next generation of fashion designers follow in his footsteps, by opening one online store sale of clothes and accessories made by students and graduates of its design program the JCA Fashion Academy in London.
“My father always told me, if you have the knowledge and skills, if you pass on your legacy, then the younger generation. [can have] all the skills and knowledge too,” he told CNBC. Choo was born in Malaysia, where his father taught him to make shoes by hand.
Choo opened the academy in 2021, offering students a bachelor’s or master’s degree in entrepreneurship in brand design and innovation – with business a key part of the program.
“It is very important … for [help] start a business, to see how it sells,” Choo told CNBC.
Students learn about marketing and PR and write business plans with the goal of starting their own “micro” fashion business after graduation, according to a description on the the academy website.
“Even the most talented of fashion designers will fail if they don’t have business acumen,” Choo said in a press release.
JCA London Fashion Academy designer Olivia Black’s collection, “A War on the Environment,” aims to highlight the “battle” that needs to happen to combat sustainability issues, Black told CNBC. Pictured here is a model in one of Black’s pieces at a fashion show on November 28, 2024.
Dave Bennett | JCA London Fashion Academy | Getty Images
The academy also opened a temporary physical location – the JCA Retail Gallery – on the ground floor of the White City Living development in West London, where the student collections were exhibited and for sale last week.
“The idea of launching this was to give [students] a platform to sell your work without having to pay the fees of what you usually pay [rent a] retail [store] and gives the opportunity to speak to the general public,” said Olivia Black, one of the academy’s graduates and co-curator of the JCA Retail Gallery. The retail space was donated to the academy by the real estate firm Berkeley Group.
Black said Choo gave her feedback on her eponymous fashion brand during its creation, advising her to develop the idea of her brand’s motif – an eagle. “He always says, like, focus on something that makes the clothes really special,” Black said.
Sustainability is a focus for students. Many of the dresses were produced from dead or second-hand textiles, while some were made to be modular with zips or bows that allow sleeves or trouser legs to be added or removed for different occasions. Choo suggested that designers could use the offcuts from the production of luxury clothes to make cheaper pieces.
Eleanor Hunter, a graduate of London’s JCA Fashion Academy, named her label ‘Average George’, after her grandfather, a World War II spy. A model wears one of Hunter’s pieces at a fashion show on November 28, 2024.
Dave Bennett | JCA London Fashion Academy | Getty Images
Last year, McKinsey predicted that generative artificial intelligence could add between $150 billion and $275 billion in operating profits of the fashion and luxury sectors as soon as 2026. What does Choo make of AI and its effect on the fashion industry? He said that AI is useful for student exercises, or for translating letters from Chinese, but warned that it should not be used for everything.
“Because people can see – if you use AI, everything comes out the same,” he said. “You can use it [it] as a guide, but not 100% to take and do everything. Otherwise, you have lost your skill,” Choo said.
Choo studied at London’s Cordwainers shoe college in the early 1980s, and made shoes for a show at London Fashion Week later that decade. Vogue magazine reporter Kate Phelan saw his designs and called him, saying, “Jimmy … we want those shoes,” Choo told CNBC. The magazine ran a feature on her shoes on several pages, and Choo found a customer in Diana, Princess of Wales in the 1990s.
Choo sold his 50% stake in the footwear company of the same name when the company was valued at £21 million in 2001 and the The brand is now owned by Capri Holdingswho bought it in a A $1.35 billion deal in 2017.
