Back in the 1980s and early 1990s, Patrick Cox was the hottest footwear designer around. The fantastical shoes he created for Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano had earned him a maverick reputation, and his own label was renowned for its creativity. He thought nothing of making jelly sandals with miniature Eiffel Towers embedded in the heels, or Minnie Mouse mary-janes with thick, bumper-car soles. Remember the craze in the early 1980s for wearing steel-toecapped Doc Martens with the leather cut away to expose the metal? Cox started it. Then, in 1993, he set off a white-hot fashion frenzy when he launched Wannabe, a range of chunky unisex loafers that everyone who was anyone just had to own.
Cox signed a lucrative Italian manufacturing deal to produce his hit shoe and, at the height of loafer mania, his little Chelsea shop was so inundated by customers, it had to operate a one-out, one-in queue system. By the late 1990s, however, his shoes had lost their shine. Loafers were out, and glitzy brand-name shoes by the likes of Prada and Gucci were the order of the day. Cox carried on working, and his shoes carried on selling, although not to the high-fashion crowd. He even had a party in 1998 to celebrate the fact that he had sold his millionth pair of Wannabes. But for style insiders, he’d gone mass and lost his maverick spirit. His cool credentials were tarnished and it looked as though he would never get them back.
Nobody is more aware of it than Cox himself. “I got lost in loafer land for about a decade,” he says without irony. “I was going to be the biggest shoe designer on the planet, then suddenly all these monolithic companies came up. The Pradas and Guccis. It wasn’t about being a designer, it was about being a brand. It was the lowest point in my career,” he says.
Now, 20 years after starting his business, Patrick Cox has got his mojo back. His new women’s collection features sexy dancing shoes, embellished courts and a pair of embroidered thigh boots that takes a woman in Romania two weeks to stitch. There’s not a chunky loafer in sight.
The collection signals a new mood for Cox. Last year, despite its enormous commercial success, he decided to stop making Wannabes for good and broke with his Italian manufacturing partner. It can’t have been easy to walk away from such an iconic design. “They called it the Dr Martens of the 1990s.
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I was so proud. It was like a flag for Britain,” he says of the shoes. The final tally of pairs sold topped 3m, but Cox felt creatively hemmed in by the product that had made his name. “I’ve stepped back from all that. I’ve stopped doing Wannabe and now I’m doing me. It’s bittersweet. It took a long time to make that decision. For at least five years, I didn’t want to do them any more, but it was what I was known for. But I’ve got to do what I want to do, and I want to do those creative shoes and be known on that level,” he says.
At 42, Cox feels that his best days are not yet behind him. “I’m still relevant. I can still do stuff, and now it is going to be on my terms.” His take on high heels, for instance, has been consistently anti-girly.
“I don’t like women teetering around on little spindly stilettos. I like a more aggressive spiked heel. It’s not pretty and twee,” he insists. On his first day at Cordwainers, the footwear school where Emma Hope and Jimmy Choo also trained, Cox’s class was asked to draw a shoe. “Everyone drew a pink stiletto, but I was sitting there trying to get the proportions right on a square-toed, flat black shoe. The tutor said, ‘We’re drawing shoes, not cars.’”
Cox, who partied through the 1980s with Westwood, Galliano and Boy George, and now hangs out with Liz Hurley, Elton John and David Furnish, admits that although he lives a jet-set lifestyle, he has always had a problem embracing conventional glamour. “I’m a reality-based designer. That’s why the Wannabe was my moment,” he says.
Post-Wannabe, he has decided to go for it. “My disco-glamorous lifestyle and the shoes I was making didn’t go with each other. I’ve been to the Oscars as a guest for the past seven years, but have I dressed anyone for the Oscars? No. I’ll be going the next time -and taking shoes with me,” he says.
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Cox is throwing a lavish 20th-anniversary party at London Fashion Week, and has revamped his Sloane Street boutique to reflect his new enthusiasm for his brand.
Gone are the minimalist interiors and in their place are hand-picked antiques and lavish chandeliers. As well as his foxy autumn women’s range, he is also introducing a semi-bespoke handmade range for men, with prices starting at Pounds 350.
It is another indication that he wants to move away from highly commercial designs.
Cox neatly assesses his impact: “I raised the bar. I made designer footwear appeal to the masses. Before I came along, most people in England wore Dr Martens, and in America they wore sneakers.” He has had his ups and downs, and hasn’t always loved the shoes he has produced, but now he is entering a new era. He is looking forward, not back, and proclaims: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”