Jimmy Choo: High-heeled, well heeled

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Actress Nicole Kidman is the face for Jimmy Choo latest ad campaign. (China Daily)

He was a humble shoemaker who has left some indelible footprints in haute couture. Now his name is stamped on a label that is still going strong in spite of a slew of challengers.

How does a luxury footwear and accessories brand which became a household name thanks to the TV series Sex and the City not lose its luster among a loyal and growing customer base that relies on the brand for classics that have become the backbone of mostly working woman's shoe wardrobe?

And while celebrity-endorsed fashion is said to be waning, hires a sexily re-invented Nicole Kidman to act out its major advertising campaign?

In over 20 years of business, Jimmy Choo has gone through various ownerships and investors. Although still alive and working, its original eponymous designer is no longer connected to the company.

His niece, Sandra Choi, who has been with the company from the start, designs the current line. The brand is now owned by Labelux, a fashion holding company based in Switzerland, which also owns other luxury leather goods companies like Bally, Belstaff and Zagliani.

Aside from never having had an "it" bag or shoe, today's Jimmy Choo makes a fascinating story because it is one of the few brands who has never aggressively entered China although it has had a store in Beijing and Shanghai for the last 10 years.

A freestanding men's boutique in Shanghai is scheduled to open in the autumn. Two women's boutiques opened this summer and another is scheduled to be opening in Beijing.

Its largest market remains America with China contributing less than 10 percent to its total sales.

Jimmy Choo CEO Pierre Denis reports that the company is growing in the high double digits and is one of the top three brands in the US but admits that if they wanted to be as big in China, it would take time.

"The timing is good because in essence, as we are privately-owned, we do not have the pressures of the stock market. We can build a brand in China while it is going through a change in the consumption of luxury and clients are open to having something different. It is usually at these times that you are able to establish yourself."

Another factor of their business counter to the common story of the slowdown in luxury goods is the brand's success in Japan, the very country long thought to be a shrinking luxury goods market.

"We are very much bolstered and enthusiastic about the success we have in Japan because it is probably the fastest growing market for us," says Denis, who is taking this successful marketing and business formula to the rest of the world.

It may just become a blueprint for other brands to follow.

Jimmy Choo goes against the grain of luxury fashion brands in the sense that they literally have something for everyone and is many things to a wide female audience. This merchandise mix has made them popular with everyone from celebrities to CEOs including, yes, the Japanese.

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