MILAN — “In all reality, I wish we’d been able to open Milan many decades ago, because this is the home of our shoes. It’s where they’re born in many ways,” said Kristina Blahnik .

For the chief executive officer of the Manolo Blahnik brand, the company’s first Italian stand-alone store was long overdue, considering its shoes are all made in Italy, mostly at the Re Marcello factory in Vigevano, near Milan . The firm acquired the space in 2019, retaining the craftspeople and staff with whom they’d been working for many years.

Quietly opened earlier this month and to be officially celebrated this week, the new two-story store “marks an incredibly proud moment for us to be able to share with our artisans — where they can come and see how our shoes are portrayed, how the stories

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