During a recent conversation within a geography building conference room, Stuart Weitzman smiled and quoted his favorite line from his favorite poem, “IF” by Rudyard Kipling. “Complete the unforgivable minute with sixty seconds” in the distance. “
“Howt how I live my life,” Weitzman insisted. “Don’t waste a cursed second.”
He has done nothing but. Weitzman, the well -known stylist and founder of the luxury shoe brand bearing his name, is traveling to colleges across the country to share his success story with students and inspire them to follow their entrepreneurial efforts.
Weitzman visited Clark on February 12, the Faculty of Meeting, students and staff, and capturing the day with a living presentation entitled “The Travel of a Designer on the Less Traveled Road” inside a tilton packaged hall. Location Long Island recounted the road that began with her working summer in a family -owned shoe factory in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and led to the highest fashion ages, winning her “Shoemaker to the Stars”.
Inserting the Tilton scene, Weitzman preferred to roam the floor, sharing stories of his adventures in the shoe trade, which included the design of attractive shoes for the likes of Taylor Swift, Jennifer Aniston and Beyonce. He found his niche, recalled, studying the fashion parade on the red carpet at famous events and noting that while women were lined with high -level designers, they rarely wore custom -made shoes. He decided to change it.
Weitzman invested a third of his money in a small factory and began producing luxury shoes he initially gave him a ploy to build his reputation between the Hollywood elite. It was a great danger, he admitted, but indispensable. “” Risk “is not a four -letter word,” he told the audience, many students from the business school. “Friend is your best friend.”
The designer recalled some of the advertising campaigns that placed his company on the cultural map, with bold and eccentric visuals and the memorable, “slightly fixed with shoes”. A living imagination, he advised, is “a legal way to overcome your competition.”
Weitzman, who sold his company a few years ago and is now retired, traced his creative inspirations extending from Marilyn Monroe to Audrey Hepburn to Julia Roberts, whose high thigh boots in “Pretty Woman” inspired a similar model that he modified for Swift. The singer admired the boots so much that she wore them on numerous occasions on her 1989 tournament. He also designed a pair of diamond -studied sandals for $ 1 million and were dressed by actress Laura Harring at the Awards ceremony of the 2002 Academy, an action that proved to be “a checkpoint for our company” both on sale and fame, he said
“There are opportunities there you can’t imagine,” Weitzman advised. “You can distinguish them if you pay attention.”
During his presentation, Weitzman offered a series of brains he referred to with a fuss as “Stuism” – the lessons taken during a life of creating and selling his original shoes. Among them is the power of repetition in a competitive arena: “Repeat something that is excellent, and then you own it.”
Weitzman also advised audience members to become active community members by sharing their skills and talents – and financial resources – to do some good in the world.
One of the highlights of the evening happened when Weitzman called three Clark students to model his signature shoes, which went from chunky platforms to top heel sandals (including a famous Bejeweled couple dressed by haring ). The three managed to execute a pleasant walk in the central row, making only a little on the five -inch soles while winning compliments from the designer for their readiness.
Before his appearance in Tilton, Weitzman sat for a wide interview with Clarknow, in which he discussed his busy schedule (visits to Smith, Holyoke and Yale were also on the route of the week), Haverhill’s historical news, love his ping pong, and the message of perseverance and ingenuity he shares with young entrepreneurs. He marveled at the intelligence of the students he meets all over the country, as well as their ambition. “Philosophy is no different from school to school,” he said. “They can’t wait to get there and start something.”
Weitzman’s conversation was sponsored by the President’s office.