Since the ‘Sex and the City’ actress was here in Seattle yesterday, we got the chance to chat with her about her new shoe line, Seattle, and of course – coffee. To answer your unasked questions: Yes, we were freaking out, and yes, we almost called her Carrie about 5 times.

We’re excited that you are launching a new line at Nordstrom, a Seattle based company. Have you been to Seattle before?
Yes! I’ve been to Seattle a decent amount, but definitely not enough. It’s a city that I love – I actually shot a television series there in the 80s called ‘A Year in the Life’. I got to live there for many months, and it was a wonderful experience. It was the first time I had ever been to Seattle, and I fell in love with the city. Later, I had a dear friend who was working in Seattle so I visited her a couple times and then launched Lovely with Nordstrom in 2005 so I was back out there again. I have a lot of wonderful memories of Seattle.

When you visited previously, was the weather decent, we hope!?
I have always had good weather when I have been in Seattle! I’m from New York so I don’t mind weather, I don’t mind rain. We had such beautiful weather when we were shooting and each time I’ve been there, I’ve had lovely weather. But I’ll take Seattle no matter what!

Your role in Sex and the City launched you into the fashion world, where you quickly became an icon. Had you personally always been interested in fashion or was it something that you learned by playing Carrie?
I have always loved beautiful, well-made clothes, but I didn’t always have access to them and rarely could afford them. But my mother always loved dressing well. She was pretty industrious about managing to do so, and she cared a great deal about how we looked when we left the house, even with limited means. I think what happened over the course of all those years playing Carrie is that I simply learned more about it. I was able to dream bigger and meet wonderful emerging designers, and develop my own relationship with fashion. That’s definitely one of many benefits I had from playing that role.

This can’t be the first time you’ve been approached about a clothing/shoe/handbag line. What makes now the right time?
I don’t know that it is the right time or the wrong time. For me, it was about finding the right partner. I’ve had the opportunities come up in the past but simply never found the perfect fit for me in terms of what I imagined in my head. One day I had the idea of partnering with Nordstrom and now, here we are.

As you know, Nordstrom is a Seattle company. What makes them such a great partner for the new collection?
I have some nostalgic connections to Nordstrom. I launched Lovely there, and they were so hospitable and so wonderful to work with. Nordstrom has a great history as shoe merchants – that’s how they started. They have a superior sales staff, and they are famous for how informed the staff is, how much they know about the category that they are spending time selling. And of course they have wonderful relationships with their customers. They know this category so well and have such a wonderful reputation in retail. I love the fact that it is still a family-run business; that means a lot to me. Nordstrom really was our dream retailer for this line, and we were thrilled when they showed enthusiasm for it.

The SJP Collection will have great shoes. What else are you offering now?
We have shoes, we have a small bag collection and a trench coat in two colors. It’s sort of the exterior shell that we are looking at right now. We’ll see over time if the business grows, but for the time being we are going to focus really on shoes and the bag collection for pre-fall and fall. We are already working on spring. It just gets better and better, it’s really wonderful.

It’s probably against the rules to choose a favorite, but which shoes do you like the best?
It’s hard for me to pick a favorite, but I seem to circle back to the Carrie in purple, the Ina in jade suede, the Anna in asparagus, the Etta in both charcoal and dusty rose; I love the Fawn in black with that grey grosgrain stripe down the back. I love the Pola in grosgrain and the Lady in that geranium grosgrain, I think it’s beautiful. The Alison boot is great, too.

Because this is Seattle, we have to ask: What do you order when you go to a coffee shop?
I’m pretty much a straight shooter. I tend to not get a lot of the complicated flavors or whips. I’m a hard core, really strong cup of black coffee with a little bit of milk and a little bit of sugar. I mean hard core – the darker African roast, the better.

Source – Komo News

Sarah Jessica Parker spent years strutting down the streets of New York City in the (literal) shoes of her alter ego Carrie Bradshaw on the cult-favorite HBO TV series Sex and the City. In addition to sharing her character’s penchant for jaw-dropping designer kicks, Parker, like Bradshaw, has a special place in her heart for Manolo Blahniks. Fittingly, when she embarked on designing her own collection, she called upon the brand’s CEO George Malkemus.

The result? SJP, a colorful collection of statement-making shoes, handbags, and trenchcoats that embrace the unique, fearless sense of style that has made Parker a fashion icon on and off the screen. The Nordstrom-exclusive line hit stores last Friday (February 28) and Parker will be at The Grove’s Nordstrom tomorrow (189 The Grove Dr., Fairfax, 323-930-2230; March 6, 5-6 p.m.) to meet fellow shoe-lovers and sign their purchases. Below, Parker shares on her collection and what inspired it, her number one fashion rule, and how many shoes she really owns.

What was your vision for the collection?
SARAH JESSICA PARKER: Well, once I had the nerve to call George Malkemus and ask if he would consider being a partner with me, we got together the next morning and I came to discover fortuitously that we had both arrived in New York City around the same time, which was the late ‘70s. I was a young girl, but I was completely and immediately captivated by images that I would see looking in the windows on 59th Street, 57th Street, and lower Madison. Some of the great shoe designers of all time were very present in New York—Maud Frizon, Charles Jourdan, and countless others—and it was that beautiful single sole [with] lots of color. I really wanted to revisit the single sole and start thinking about color as a neutral.

Did Carrie Bradshaw and Sex and the City serve as inspirations as well?
SJP: Her affection [for shoes] was inspiring in a lot of ways. But these aren’t all Carrie Bradshaw shoes and they can’t be because that isn’t really cross-generational enough for a collection. I really wanted this collection to be for a lot of different kinds of women—all shapes, sizes, and ages.

What elements of your personal style did you incorporate into the designs?
SJP: I like a lot of color and I’m less inclined to wear a black shoe to a business meeting. The idea of what’s appropriate has not been something that I’ve always applied to my choices, and I wanted women to have that same opportunity to wear the purple Carrie shoe, for instance, to work, to a parent-teacher conference, to meet with her friends, or for a special occasion. It can be every bit as appropriate as black, dusty rose, or asparagus.

What inspired the names of the shoes?
SJP: In some cases they were people I admired. In many cases they were just names that I’ve always loved, and in some cases they were named after women and friends who have been inspiring to me or I admire their taste. There’s a shoe called Pola after the great onscreen actress Pola Negri. There’s a shoe named after my dear friend Iva Rifkin. Obviously, there’s the Carrie. There’s an Etta named after Audrey Hepburn—it’s rumored that that was her real name.

Why did you decide to create handbags and trenchcoats as well?
SJP: I think that’s all part of that outer package. When you step out the door, the shoes and a bag are the first impression you’re sharing with somebody about how you’re feeling that day, or the story you want to tell, or an image you want to project, and it seemed a doable and an edited way of introducing that idea into the collection.

What’s your fashion mantra?
SJP: In some ways it’s just practical choices—you know, taking the kids to school in the middle of winter requires you to be warm. But really, it’s [about] who am I. I’m less interested in trying to look like somebody else. I want to feel like myself. I don’t have a mantra, but I would say I really try to tell my own story.

Lastly, we’re dying to know. How many pairs of shoes do you own?
SJP: This is always disappointing for people—I’m not a big shopper at all. I have a very small and disappointing closet, so I don’t have a lot of shoes. I’ve never counted them, which I know sounds ridiculous. But, I also love having things that I can wear years from now. I have many shoes that are two decades old that I love and are relevant, and I think that’s the way I tend to shop now. That was important for this collection, too, that women could reach for that shoe that we produced in five years and still feel like it fits into their life.

Source – LA Confidential Magazine

Carrie Bradshaw, “Sex and the City’s” shoe-loving character played by Sarah Jessica Parker, is often credited for familiarizing the masses with luxury footwear labels Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin. Now the 48-year-old Parker, whose head-to-heels style off-screen rivals that of her most famous character, has launched a signature shoe line in partnership with Manolo Blahnik CEO George Malkemus.

Parker’s namesake SJP Collection debuted Friday and consists of 25 made-in-Italy shoe styles ($195-$485), three handbags ($245-$375) and one trench coat ($495), sold at Nordstrom stores and nordstrom.com.

The collection seems like a Cinderella fit, for obvious reasons.

How long have you been wanting to design a shoe line?
For the past 10 years, people have been offering me this opportunity. I kept saying “No,” and I couldn’t figure out why… Ultimately, I was sitting at a lunch with a couple of [business] friends, and they said, “What do you want?”

I said, “I don’t want to make a shoe that costs $69.99, because I know it’s not going to be a shoe that I can talk about with true enthusiasm and affection. It’s not going to be a shoe that will last five or 10 years, feel really good on the foot, and tell the story that I want to tell.”

And they said, “Who would you want to be in this business with?”

I said, “George Malkemus, whom I’ve known for years now. I think I know his taste… [With their encouragement], I went home, picked up the phone and said, “Would you ever consider being a partner in a shoe business with me?”

He said, “Be at my office tomorrow morning at 9 a.m.”

How did you and George connect on a concept?
We both came to New York in the latter part of the ‘70s, and that particular time period in the shoe business was really exciting. There was everything from Bonwit [Teller] to Maud Frizon, Charles Jourdan, Ferragamo, Susan Bennis/Warren Edwards and Stuart Weitzman. It was the era of the single sole [a shoe without a platform], and that kind of went away.

What I wanted to do is to revisit that single sole that can look so feminine and beautiful and sexy on a foot … to go back to a simpler time [and colors like] matte purple, aubergine, asparagus….

The colors are brilliant. How does that reflect your approach to style?
There are only about three black shoes, two nude shoes and no brown shoes, except for the Alison boot. … I mean, are you any less capable at the office because you are wearing a purple shoe? No! I think you have to think differently about yourself…. All those ideas about neutrals and what is appropriate and what’s not [don’t] really have to apply, because you are still your same self. Your brain will still function in all the wonderful ways that it does.…

Let’s talk heels. No sky-high stilettos?
I didn’t want sky-high, because I think other people do them really, really well, and I wanted to show that you can have a shoe that’s not sky-high that is still significant and still feels sexy and powerful and feminine [without being] impossible to navigate the streets [in]…

Is there a story behind the female name of each shoe?
Some, but some are just names I like… Tanny is named for Tanaquil Le Clercq, a ballet dancer that I love. You know, it’s rumored that Audrey Hepburn’s real name was Etta. In all the research I’ve done, sometimes that story stands up and sometimes it doesn’t, but I like the name, and I think it’s a nice little acknowledgment of the role she’s played in so many of our lives. There’s Pola for [actress] Pola Negri, because I loved her so much. Ina is named after my publicist, Ina Treciokas, and Alison is named for Alison Benson, who runs my company at HBO.

Any family member shoe names? I don’t see a Tabitha or a Marion.
You’re not supposed to name shoes after your children, so I didn’t. It’s supposed to be bad luck. But the Bobbie is named for my mom. My mom’s name is Barbara, but everyone has called her Bobbie her whole life.… The style is slightly old-fashioned, like she is.

Source – LA Times

A true New York treasure, Sarah Jessica Parker today hosted a preview of the shoes and accessories in her SJP Collection for Nordstrom at an airy pop-up shop on 372 W. Broadway (next door to Cipriani Downtown) that will be open for three days starting this Friday.

Wearing a pleated, powder pink dress that played to the shop’s ladylike color scheme, Parker milled around refreshingly absent of a publicist and struck up conversations with an ebullient, “Hi there.” One needn’t much more to feel compelled to bring home a piece of the moment—i.e. a pair of her fabulous new shoes.

The Inspiration: Italy by Way of New York, Circa the 1970s
Created with business partner and longtime Manolo Blahnik CEO George Malkemus, the SJP Collection is a love letter to New York, a generation of Sex and the City fans, and a very specific, idealized woman who lived in New York and Italy in the 1970s. In Parker’s words, the muse was “drawn from moments in our past or things we saw in the streets in Italy in 1979, or the crosstown bus in 1981.”

With a razor sharp suit and a Texas drawl, Malkemis recalled how Parker described her muse to him, “Think of the lady in Florence in 1977. She had a jean that was slightly flared and she had on a clog and she carried a bag a certain way,” she had told him. But the collection is not a literal nod to the ’70s, it’s more subtle and timeless, concentrating on the colors and spirit of the era, with references to designers like Charles Jourdan and others whom the duo have a shared admiration for.

How Parker and Malkemis Balanced High Craftsmanship with Reasonable Prices
On Parker and Malkemis’ insistence, the shoes are made in Italy by a third generation Tuscan shoemaker. “We wanted to make these shoes in Italy, we wanted to make them at a certain price point, we wanted the fit to be completely, inarguably perfect, and the comfort to be everything a woman wants and needs and should get for the dollar amount she’s paying,” said Parker.

With prices from $195 to $500, there are classic pumps (about 3 inches to our eye), strappy heels with bows and florets on the toe, espadrilles (made exceptionally in Spain, where all great espadrilles are made), lace-up booties in “luggage” brown, plenty of open-toe mules and sandals for summer, and, of course, there is a “Carrie” shoe, not to mention a pair of black patent Mary Janes. (Remember the Sex and the City episode where Carrie finds the black patent Manolo Blahnik Mary Janes, the ones she thought were “an urban shoe myth”?)

A few handbags—a roomy clutch, a tote, a small handheld—and a “Manhattan” trench coat round out the line. The color palette is bright, but the silhouettes are simple-chic. “It really was about the single sole and color, and color as a neutral. We treat color as if it’s as appropriate for the office as anything else,” says Parker on the line’s mauvy pinks, Easter egg blues, greens, and purples, and Studio 54-worthy metallics.

“This Isn’t a Licensing Deal”
One thing is certain: you can shop the SJP Collection knowing that everything—down to the signature grosgrain ribbon accents that mimic the ribbons Parker wore in her hair as a child—is a derivative of Parker’s personal style and longstanding love of fashion and fashion culture.

“Any work I do—Coty or Sex and the City—anything I produce, I am not someone who steps in and out. I don’t know how to do that, and I feel honor-bound by the opportunity and I don’t want to be told ‘here’s the end product,'” says Parker of her hands-on role. “There isn’t a meeting I miss or a phone call, conference call, or email. I am on every chain. I am in every meeting . . . This isn’t a licensing deal. This is a partnership. We own this business together.”

Malkemis said that in his meetings with Parker, where they’d sit on the floor with bowls of soup, she told him, “George, they cannot be designer shoe prices. I don’t want them to be Manolo Blahnik, Louboutin, Jimmy Choo, or Lanvin. I want them to be something that the woman who’s followed me as Carrie Bradshaw for 10 years on Sex and the City can go into a store [and buy].” And from the start, the two agreed that Nordstrom was the only home for the line.

Business partnership aside, the design union of Parker and Malkemis is one of total friendship and joy. “It’s truly one of the most passionate things I’ve ever done,” says Malkemis. “She is so generous and so thoughtful and so respectful of everyone, and to me that matters a great deal. In the fashion business you meet a lot of people who are not always that way. So to have a person that takes care of each person individually, with the same respect that she would some very famous person, is very refreshing.”

Source – Gotham Magazine