Boots and all

Giuseppe Zanotti is to grown women what Santa Claus is to children. The renowned shoemaker counts Rihanna, Milla Jovovich, Charlize Theron and Uma Thurman among the many celebrity fans he has amassed throughout his career. Not many designers can lay claim to the fact that they brought a Destiny's Child recording session to a halt, with Beyonc? Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams fighting over a selection of shoes.

'Shoes have this incredible effect on women. Whether [she's] a celebrity or a housewife, put a pair of shoes in front of her and that distinction just disappears. They just go crazy!' he says.

Zanotti is in Hong Kong for the opening of his first stand-alone boutique in the city. In Asia his boutiques have sprung up in Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia and on the mainland, but Zanotti has waited for 15 years before taking the plunge here (his shoes were available only at Lane Crawford). Why has it taken him so long?

'Mine is a little company,' he says. 'On top of that, I only make shoes. I don't have a big product range. It was always important to me that I find partners who had the same passion for my product and the same vision of my future. Nowadays, I produce more than 800 shoes per collection and finally, I found the perfect partners, so we built this house to display my work.'

Zanotti has a long-term vision, meticulously planning rather than cashing in on the next big thing. 'I don't believe in this garbage system that fashion seems to exist in - you're cool one minute, then two months later, you're in the garbage.

'Being cool is so superficial. I prefer to be quiet, yet enjoy longevity. Why would I want to throw my know-how in the garbage after one season? And after a woman spends thousands of dollars on my shoes, why should she have to throw it away after one season?'