Jimmy Choo Toasts New Creative Director

"Sexy, strappy, glamorous." Jimmy Choo creative director Sandra Choi needs only three adjectives to describe the platform sandal—and most popular shoe on the Academy Awards red carpet for the past 15 years—that transformed the small London bespoke business of one Malaysian-born cobbler, Jimmy Choo, into a global phenomenon with more than 180 stores in 32 countries. You might think a billion-dollar concern that embodies high-gloss Fashion with a capital F would have little incentive to reinvent the wheel. Not so, says Choi. "Jimmy Choo doesn't just have to be about just that."

It was in 1998 that Jimmy Choo—along with Choi, the founder's Central Saint Martins–educated niece, as its petite main, and leggy British socialite Tamara Mellon (who left the company in 2011) as its public face—took a suite at L'Ermitage Beverly Hills hotel and began outfitting the Oscars-bound in its vertiginous stilettos. Tonight, the luxury footwear maker is in the 90210 again, this time to throw a party at the home of contemporary art patron Eugenio López to officially welcome Choi to her leadership role, to which she was appointed last year.

The scene is more familiar to art-world denizens than to Tinseltown glitterati: Work by Tracey Emin hangs in the pool house; L.A.-based street artist Retna has created a custom mural backdrop for the evening's musical performance by the band of the summer, Bastille; and a roster of international It-Girl-cum-DJs—Chelsea Leyland, Mia Moretti, Hannah Bronfman, Mary Charteris, Solange—are chilling on the lawn alongside a yellow stainless steel Jeff Koons elephant. The gathering is also a celebration of CHOO.08°, Choi's new range, which includes not-so-spindly chunky T-bar booties and pointy-toe rocker boots. "There have always been flatter shoes in the collection," says the designer. "But now that I'm in charge, I can push that side to the forefront." Improbably enough, she's adding new adjectives to the Jimmy Choo lexicon—practical, comfortable, relaxed.

CHOO.08°—the number references the longitudinal position of London—realigns the house with a new center of gravity, which is good news for some of tonight's guests. Leyland arrived at the fete straight from Coachella wearing a very short frock by Emilio de la Morena, but her footwear—menswear-inspired slip-ons—is of the type more frequently associated with Manhattan sidewalks than with L.A. pool parties. The grid skipper says it's all about balance: "I don't want to look really scruffy, but also not too done." Actress Fuschia Kate Sumner, a friend of Leyland, concurs: "A lower heel is more modern," she says, showing off the urban roper boots she has paired with her Stella McCartney crop top and miniskirt.

The rest of the cool-girl scrum couldn't agree more. "I'm so happy to find wearable shoes," enthuses tomboyish singer Aluna Francis as Bastille launches into its set. Vibing to "Pompeii" and "Things We Lost in the Fire," she seems at ease in her Balenciaga short suit—with the help, of course, of her Jimmy Choo kicks.

This article appeared in the August 2014 issue of ELLE magazine.

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