‘Shoes are the secret weapon. You have to trust them fully.’ Jimmy Choo’s Sandra Choi on the wardrobe behind Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour.

Sandra Choi has had a year of Renaissance. Quite literally fresh off the heels of Beyoncé’s gloriously masterful Renaissance World Tour, Jimmy Choo’s Creative Director is part of the fashion army of designers, stylists, seamstresses, and assistants that were drafted to create the fashion language of the tour, often crafting and creating looks not only for Bey herself, but for her dancers and crew, perfecting her opulent vision. “The fashion of this tour is an incredibly important part of the vision and creative language.” expressed Bey herself in the premiere of Renaissance: A film by Beyonce, the extensive tour documentary detailing four years worth of hard work and dedication, trials and tribulations, conceptualising and sketching each and every second of the three hour live spectacle.

As a fashion veteran herself, Sandra Choi knew her mission was to immerse herself into what the Renaissance is all about in order to understand how shoes become the all-important jewel and finishing touch of the vision, whilst also making sure that a performer can trust their own stability. “We have had such an incredible relationship with performers and artists, and when we began discussing the possibility of working in supporting the tour, it was a no brainer.”

Indeed, beyond a beautiful visual, long hours of sketching, re-designing, mocking up and re-shaping continue to take place as footwear on stage acts as the steel base behind immense choreography, specifically for an artist as dynamic as Beyoncé. “My first approach in designing is thinking about that these artists and performers are working. They are not walking a red carpet or going out, but the need and support of a heel is dramatically different. Shoes are the secret weapon that you have to trust one hundred percent, and you shouldn’t be thinking whether it will support you. You have to put your whole trust into it.”

Speaking about advancements of design, technology has also enabled Sandra to create a perfect fit in her shoe-making without the need of having the performer present, making for a much easier process of acting and reacting speedy if anything needs to be switched up. “With Beyoncé, she wears a different look every single night of the tour, so we had to craft and create multiple options for each look, and utilising 3D mapping and enhanced technology in our design process, we were able to custom create shoes that are a perfect fit to measurement without the back and forth of sending mock-ups, and we were able to be even more flexible.”

So, is there anything that can go wrong? “Thankfully, for this tour we didn’t have any issues, but looking back at my extensive history of custom creating shoes for Hollywood, I still remember years ago when I used to be in charge of red carpet dressing for the OSCARS and oftentimes we would be sending shoes to the actresses whilst the colour was still drying as we did not any time left whatsoever!”