Sandra Choi on accepting Fashion Awards 2026 honor

The British Fashion Council said on September 14 that Sandra Choi, creative director of Jimmy Choo, will receive a Special Recognition Award at The Fashion Awards 2026 on November 30 at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Last year’s recipient was Delphine Arnault, chairman and CEO of Christian Dior Couture. Choi has led design at Jimmy Choo since the company launched in 1996 and has been its sole creative director since 2013. Nearly every major house has replaced its designer over the past two years, betting that a new name will reset a brand’s story and, eventually, its sales. Jimmy Choo has kept the same designer through the exits of both its founders — Choi’s uncle Jimmy Choo in 2001 and Tamara Mellon in 2011 — and five changes of majority owner, most recently its $1.2 billion sale to Michael Kors Holdings, now Capri Holdings, in 2017. Born on the Isle of Wight, Choi spent five years of her childhood with her grandparents in Hong Kong before moving to London as a teenager, and in 1989 she began helping out in her uncle’s East End couture workshop. She is one of the few designers of Asian heritage leading a global luxury brand. Jimmy Choo’s early growth was built on celebrity. Diana, Princess of Wales, wore the brand’s pumps to a gala in Chicago in June 1996, months after it launched. The brand went on to feature in “Sex and the City.” Jing Daily: How does it feel to receive this award and is there anything that it has made you reflect on? Sandra Choi: It has not quite sunk in yet. I do this work out of love for craft and for this house, so to have that recognized by the British Fashion Council means a great deal. It has reminded me how many people have shaped this journey alongside me, and this feels as much theirs as mine. JD: How has your understanding of the Jimmy Choo woman evolved since you started at the company? SC: When I started, we designed for a woman who wanted to be noticed the moment she entered a room. That woman still exists, but my understanding of her has become richer: she is busier, more global, and moves between very different worlds in a single day. She has also become more vocal about what she wants, which keeps our design process a genuine conversation rather than a monologue. JD: You spent part of your childhood in Hong Kong before returning to the UK. How did moving between two cultures shape your creative perspective? SC: Hong Kong in the 1980s was an extraordinary place to be a teenager: vibrant, exciting, full of Western references that fed into the Canto-pop scene, alongside the pull of youthful Japanese idols. That mix is really where my early fascination with fashion and culture began. Coming to the UK afterwards gave me structure and a different kind of discipline, and I believe the best of my work still sits in that space between the two. JD: Do you have any rituals that have kept you grounded working in fashion? SC: Sketching by hand keeps me grounded, whatever the industry looks like at any given moment. I also make a point of keeping family and old friends close, as they knew me long before any of this and keep me honest. Walking through London, simply observing the city, keeps me curious. JD: What’s your favorite part of running a fashion brand? SC: The making. There is a particular satisfaction in watching a sketch become a three-dimensional shoe in the atelier, and then watching a woman wear it and carry herself a little differently because of it. That transformation is the reason I do this. JD: What’s one piece of wisdom that you could give to any new designers? SC: Learn the craft thoroughly before attempting to break the rules. The designers I admire most understand construction, materials and proportion so well that when they do push against convention, it comes from mastery rather than guesswork. Patience matters too; a career like this is built slowly. JD: What’s been the biggest challenge over the past three decades at Jimmy Choo and how did you overcome it? SC: Staying true to who we are while the industry itself has changed so dramatically, through digital disruption, changes in ownership and a pandemic that closed our stores overnight. We have managed this by holding on to our founding principles, craftsmanship, glamor and a genuine love of what we make, and trusting that the brand can evolve around that core without losing itself. JD: If you could manifest something for the next 30 years at Jimmy Choo, what would it be? SC: I would like the next 30 years to be about nurturing the next generation, giving young designers and craftspeople the same opportunities I was fortunate to have. I also hope we continue to make things beautifully and more responsibly, so that craftsmanship and sustainability are not seen as being in tension. I hope to still be at a workbench somewhere in that story.

Sandra Choi on accepting Fashion Awards 2026 honor

How Bottega Veneta weaved China’s forever it bag

Upgrade to Pro

Sectors

Insights

Company

Sandra Choi on accepting Fashion Awards 2026 honor

How Bottega Veneta weaved China’s forever it bag