LONDON — It was Manolo Blahnik’s night on Thursday, with a private view of the new Victoria and Albert Museum show, “Marie Antoinette Style,” and a lavish, 18th-century-inspired dinner celebrating the designer’s lifelong affection for the troubled French queen. His company is also the sole sponsor of the show, which opens Saturday and is set to tour America after it wraps up in London in March.
Blahnik’s designs — old and new — were everywhere.
Shoes and booties from his new Marie Antoinette capsule collection peeked from little green trees and bushes set up in the museum’s big marble hallway. The hand-tufted shoes he created for Sofia Coppola’s 2006 Marie Antoinette film were also on display, alongside the queen’s own silk slippers, jewels from her private collection and intimat