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Famous the world over for his exquisite shoes, follow in the footsteps of Jimmy Choo as he shares his favourite parts of Malaysia - his treasured homeland
Last updated 18 March 2010
Although I live in the UK, Malaysia is still my country, and I am passionate about it. In my new role as Tourism Malaysia Ambassador, I hope to persuade many more people to visit – it’s such a spectacular place with so much on offer.
I still have lots of family there, and go over about six times a year. The people of Malaysia are very friendly and speak English well. Staff in the resorts and hotels are well trained and really look after visitors with care and attention.
Whichever part of the country you visit, there’s so much for holidaymakers to do, both in peninsular Malaysia and in the separate states of Sarawak and Sabah, on the island of Borneo.
Apart from its natural beauty and fantastic wildlife such as orang-utans and Sumatran rhinoceros, the country has great activities, from diving and white water rafting, to golf and bird watching.
Penang
I was born on Penang, so it’s one of my favourite places. Called the Pearl of the Orient, the little island has been one of Malaysia’s top tourist destinations since the 1970s, when backpackers first discovered its beautiful beaches. I can remember riding around on my moped and camping out with friends when I was a teenager.
Penang is a fascinating blend of Malay, Indian, Chinese and a bit of British, in its architecture, religions, customs and especially in the cuisine. In the late 1700s, the island’s port was one of the busiest in the region, attracting traders and settlers from all over the world. Today, people come from all over Asia to taste Penang’s food, which is delicious. The Tho Yuen restaurant (Campbell Street; 04 261 4672) serves tasty chicken rice, a simple staple dish of Malaysian cuisine.
You should try durian at least three times while you’re in Malaysia – it is a bit of an acquired taste! It is said this fruit smells like hell but tastes like heaven. I love it! You can buy it cheaply in a number of places, street stalls are your best bet, but be careful – some hotels wont allow it in the rooms because of the very strong odour. I also really like papaya, sprinkled with lime juice.
And in Balik Pulau, you should try the best sweet or sour Penang laksa, a spicy, fish, pungent noodle soup.
Penang is particularly famous for its Nyonya food, too, which is a tangy blend of Chinese and Malay - Perut Rumah (17 Jalan Kelawai, Georgetown; +604-227 9917) is very good.
Georgetown, the capital city, is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s a compact city, its older parts are easily walkable or you can jump into a trishaw. Modern buildings rub shoulders with colonial trading posts, as well as Chinese and Indian temples, Anglican churches and mosques. Here you’ll find my old school building, Shih Chung, though it’s derelict now, and the Goddess of Mercy Temple my mother used to visit.
Many of Penang’s great historical buildings are being renovated by the Penang Heritage Trust and its supporters. There’s the blue mansion of 19th century entrepreneur Cheong Fatt Tze, who had eight wives. The mansion (14 Leith Street; 04-262-0006; www.cheongfatttzemansion.com) is a stunning house built by Chinese craftsmen in 1896. It’s a fascinating homage to Chinese architecture and the principles of Feng Shui. Tours run twice a day and cost 10 ringgit.
Suffolk House, just outside Georgetown on the banks of the Air Itam River, is another beautiful colonial home worth visiting.
Many Chinese shophouses are standing too and are still home to rattan weavers, signboard engravers and, yes, shoe makers, just like my father. I learnt everything from him, and without that, I would not be where I am today.
Penang’s most popular tourist attractions also include a Tropical Spice Garden (Lone Crag Villa, Lot 595 Mukim 2, Jalan Teluk Bahang; 04 881 1797; www.tropicalspicegarden.com) and the nearby Butterfly Farm. Or you can just spend time driving around the coast, stopping off in any of the picturesque fishing villages and enjoying the beautiful beaches and coves.
Where to stay in Penang
My favourite place to stay in Penang is Shangri-La's Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa, they look after you so well there, and the resort has a fantastic spa called Chi. There are plenty of other hotels to choose from too, such as the landmark Eastern and Oriental Hotel.
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s vibrant capital, couldn’t be more different. It’s a fantastic destination in itself, with wonderful art galleries, cultural events and, of course, shopping. In fact it’s a shopaholic’s paradise, with so many vast shopping malls to choose from, such as Pavilion, Mid Valley Megamall, one of the biggest in southeast Asia, Sungai Wang Plaza and upmarket Starhill Gallery. I also call into Central Market (www.centralmarket.com.my) where my friend Fion Poon has shops selling beautiful handbags and shoes – Borsette Scarpe (www.borsettescarpe.com) and Ferrelle.
Fashion
Of course, I have many friends who are involved in the fashion industry.
Robert Loh of Lord’s Tailors (At The Ampwalk, Jalan Ampang, or Bangsar Shopping Centre, Jalan Maarof; www.lordstailor.com.my) makes all of my suits and Lewre Lew is following in my footsteps as a shoe designer – he has couture and ready-to-wear outlets across KL (www.lewre.com).
Then there’s Dato’ Tan Boon-Pun whose Xixili handmade lingerie (www.xixilli-intimates.com) is extremely popular with visitors, and my friend Winnie Sin, who creates stunning pearl jewellery for many Asian celebrities and royalty. Her Rafflesia Pearl Centre is at the Grand Plaza, Park Royal Hotel.
Khoon Hooi, Albert King, Bernard Chandran and Tom Abang Saufi are just a few of the renowned Malaysian designers producing exquisite fashions for their famous clients.
Where to eat, drink and stay
KL of course has many, many great bars and restaurants to visit in the evenings – the SkyBar on the 33rd floor of the Traders Hotel (60 3 2332 9888; www.tradershotels.com) or the rooftop Luna Bar at the Pacific Regency (www.pacific-regency.com) have great views of the city’s famous twin Petronas Towers.
After a busy time shopping and sightseeing in KL, you need to relax, and another one of my favourite places in Malaysia is the perfect Pangkor Laut Resort, about three hours north of KL. The resort is the only building on a privately-owned island three miles off the west coast of Malaysia. The rest of the land is a two-million-year-old rainforest. It has the most beautiful beach at Emerald Bay, too, and a wonderful Spa Village (www.spavillage.com) offering a great selection of treatments from Ayurvedic, Chinese and Malay. I have stayed there a few times.
Cameron Highlands
Cameron Highlands Resort is a boutique hideaway in the middle of tea plantations in Pahang in Malaysia’s largest hill region. When I was a guest there, I had a two-hour massage every day in the Spa Village. Massages are very good for helping your body’s chi, or energy, to flow smoothly. I adore Malay massage, which uses long kneading strokes that stimulate energy points and rejuvenates the body.
When I’m on holiday, I like to start the day with a long walk on the beach. I take a book of poetry and a notebook to jot down ideas and I always carry two cameras in case I drop one. I don’t go anywhere without my Buddhist pendant either.
Holidays are all about taking time to relax and do something you enjoy. If you feel good, you pass that on to those around you, so you benefit and so do other people. It’s good karma.
How to get there
I always fly with Malaysia Airlines (www.malaysiaairlines.com), the national carrier, because of the world-class service – in fact, they have won the title of ‘Best Cabin Crew’ for the sixth time. Kuala Lumpur is around a 12 hour flight from the UK.
Source: http://www.simonseeks.com/travel-guides/professor-jimmy-choos-malaysia__165144
About Jimmy Choo
Celebrity shoe designer Professor Jimmy Choo was born in Penang, Malaysia, and has been recently appointed as the country’s official Tourism Ambassador. He came to London in the 1980s to study footwear and established his couture label in 1986. He sold his share of the ready-to-wear business in 2001 and today he designs and produces bespoke hand-crafted shoes bearing the Jimmy Choo Couture label at his London base on Connaught Street. He is also Ambassador for Footwear Education at the London College of Fashion and a spokesperson for the British Council in their promotion of British Education to foreign students. In 2000, he received the honorary title Dato’ from the Sultan of Pahang (equivalent to a knighthood) in recognition of his contribution to Malaysia, and in 2002 he was awarded an OBE.
For more information: Jimmy Choo Couture Ltd, 18 Connaught Street, London W2 2AF, 0207 262 6888. Email - jccouture@btconnect.com

Jimmy Choo The Brand Or The Man From Malaysia? by kelly pamela · · style/beauty

Do you know that when the world says JIMMY CHOO, what they really refer to is, the BRAND Jimmy Choo; and NOT actually the man from Malaysia.. The celebrated Penang-born shoemaker called Jimmy Choo Yeang Keat.

Dato Jimmy Choo The Man From Malaysia
When I searched for “Jimmy Choo” in Google Images, out of the 14 pages of pictures, there is only ONE photo of this iconic Malaysian Jimmy Choo Yeang Keat. The rest are Jimmy Choo ads, shoe stores and pictures of Jimmy Choo products and sexy female models. Unless you google “Jimmy Choo Malaysia“.

Jimmy Choo Book Tamara Mellon
Do you know in Lauren Goldstein Crowe and Sagra Maceira de Rosen’s book, “TheTowering World of Jimmy Choo: A Glamorous Story of Power, Profits, and the Pursuit of the Perfect Shoe”, Jimmy Choo the shoemaker from Malaysia is mentiond only in ONE chapter out of 15? It is in chapter three called “A Choo is Bom”. That’s all.
But to many Malaysians, when they hear the name Jimmy Choo mentioned in foreign TV shows, Hollywood movies, or international fashion magazines and TV shows, they thought they were directly referring to the Malaysian Hakka shoe-maker Choo Yeang Keat. The famous Dato Jimmy Choo.
It is a fact, Dato Jimmy Choo himself started it all from his humble grotty workshop in Hackney, East London, way back in 1986. And with the help of his niece Sandra Choi, they developed a list of high-end clients.
With Jimmy Choo’s exquisite craftmanship and designs, his shoes were featured in a 8-page spread in 1988 issue of British Vogue. Then came the late Princess Diana Princess of Wales who further boosted the name Jimmy Choo.
Basically, most Malaysians know him as ‘Jimmy Choo the Malaysian shoemaker who made shoes for the late Princess Diana’.
So, how did the name Jimmy Choo became a global brand in the competitive world of high fashion?

Tamara Mellon Jimmy Choo Founder
It all because of this English lady (above) by the name of Tamara Yeardye (latter known as Tamara Mellon after she married to a banking heir Matthew Mellon). She was then the accessories editor at British Vogue, and she spotted the potential of Malaysian-born cobbler Jimmy Choo’s work. She claimed that she is the one discovered this “East End cobbler”.
In 1996, Tamara Yeardye loaned money from his wealthy daddy Tommy Yeardye, known best for building Vidal Sassoon hair-care empire into an international brand.
Mellon and Choo became equal partner of the company called Jimmy Choo Ltd. Tamara became the president, while her dad Tom as the CEO. Sandra Choi was the creative director.
From then, Jimmy Choo remained just as an inactive partner. Mr Choo was no longer designing the collections and he had nothing to do with the company’s daily operation.
So am I right to say, all those sexy shoes worn by the celebrities in the Oscar red carpet, and used in the Hollywood movies (The Devil Wears Prada, Sex And The City, etc) are actually NOT designed by Malaysian Jimmy Choo Yeang Keat?
Now, Mellon is officially the founder and president of Jimmy Choo Ltd. Under her, the brand Jimmy Choo has gone in leaps and bounds. Ambitious Mellon is the person who brought Jimmy Choo’s rise in popularity by offering custom shoes to young, A-list Hollywood celebrities for their red-carpet walk.

The Day Jimmy Choo ‘Lost’ His Name
In April 2001, Jimmy Choo Ltd teamed up with a new partnership, Equinox Luxury Holdings Ltd. And Equinox’s Chief Executive Robert Bensoussan bought up all of Jimmy’s 50% share (worth £10m) and he became CEO of Jimmy Choo Ltd. That day, the Malaysian shoemaker Jimmy Choo was out of Jimmy Choo Ltd empire. That was how Jimmy Choo lost his name, so to speak.
Jimmy did told the Irish Times early this year, that pople still think he is associated with the ready-to-wear. He says, “It doesn’t matter that it isn’t me, but I created the ground, the foundation. They took over, but the name is still Jimmy Choo”
According to one site, Jimmy said that he likes working with individual clients rather than with mass shoe production. He wants each pair to be classy and unique. That is why he doesn’t feel happy about the new venture of the company that bears his name to make cheaper shoes for ordinary clientele.
Jimmy Choo said he has no regret over leaving Jimmy Choo label and he feels grateful to the late Tom Yeardye (Mellon’s late father), who promised to change his life and he was true to his words.
Since then he has been concentrating his work on the exclusive Jimmy Choo Couture line produced under license from Jimmy Choo Ltd from his basement workshop in Connaught Street, London. In addition, Dato Jimmy Choo is presently involved in a project to set up a shoemaking institute in Malaysia.
Sadly, now Jimmy Choo the man who, started it all, now cannot use his own name without someone else’s consent.

Jimmy Choo Fragrance Launch
It is true without Jimmy Choo Yeang Keat, there is no Jimmy Choo the brand. But the fact is ,it is the shrewd Tamara Mellon who has turned Jimmy Choo into a luxury lifestyle brand famous the world over. Other than just ladies shoes, now Jimmy Choo has handbags, scraves, sungalsses, luggage, men’s shoes and even fragrance which launched early this year.
The question is, if this ambitious Mellon did not invest and develop it further, would Jimmy Choo the brand be as well-known as today? Or is it possible Mr Choo would be still cobbling away in his workshop in Hackney, East London?

Each time when Mr. Jimmy Choo is back in Malaysia, he is sure to be invited to official functions, local major fashion events, or some VIP business dinners. But back then, he was not even invited to swanky Jimmy Choo Ltd parties!
Recently there is a report in Malaysia latest news, Jimmy Choo wants to buy back Jimmy Choo . The brand with his own name, which he lost to the wealthy founder Tamara Mellon.
With financial backing from a British investment bank, Jimmy Choo is hoping to snap it back. Rumor has it that Mellon will never want the shoe empire to go back into Mr Choo’s hand!
While we wait and see whether Jimmy Choo the man can get back Jimmy Choo the brand, let’s enjoy this sexy Jimmy Choo the music video. It is sang by ex-convict rapper Shyne, featuring Ashanti.

Jimmy Choo
Career
Worked for the family business as an apprentice shoemaker in George Town, Malaysia, in the 1970s; moved to London, England, 1980; first foot-wear designs sold under the brand name Lucky Shoes, 1984; opened custom shoe business, 1986; involved in a business partnership that launched the Jimmy Choo retail empire, 1996-2001; returned to custom-shoe business in London, 2001.
Awards: Accessory Designer of the Year, British Fashion Council, 1999; Order of the British Empire.
Sidelights
British shoemaker Jimmy Choo lent his name to the line of elegant women's footwear that quickly developed a cult following in the 1990s, despite their exorbitant prices. But there are actually two designer-shoe companies that bear his name— his own custom atelier in London, and the wholesale business with which he was once involved. Thanks to the public-relations savvy of his former partners, Choo's name joined the roster of ultrafashionable luxury brands name-checked by R&B stars like Beyoncé Knowles and on the television series Sex and the City.
Choo hails from Penang, a province of Malaysia, and grew up in Penang's capital city, George Town. His family was of Chinese heritage, and he followed his father into shoemaking as a youngster. He made his first pair at the age of 12, and was soon working regularly in the family business that operated out of the first floor of their home. Around 1980, Choo traveled to London to visit relatives, and while there learned about a venerable shoemaking school in the city's East End called Cordwainers' Technical College. The term "cordwainer" had been used since 12th-century Britain to denote artisans who made shoes from new leather, as opposed to cobblers who worked with used material. Choo decided to stay, and rounded out his education in shoemaking at the school before attempting to return to Penang. "I went home for a year, " he recalled in an interview with James Fallon for Footwear News , "but I had gotten used to the life here and came back."
Choo sold his first shoe designs under the brand name Lucky Shoes in 1984. Two years later, he started a custom shoe business using his own name, which operated out of the former Metropolitan Hospital in the east London neighborhood of Hackney. The building had been converted into a series of stalls for artisans and small-scale clothing retailers, and future Gucci creative director Alexander Mc-Queen sold some his earliest designs there at the time. In 1989, Choo was joined in the business by his niece, Sandra Choi.
Over the next few years Choo built a small but profitable business making handmade shoes for style-conscious women who could afford his custom wares. He worked in leather, as well as python and even fish skin—which took color dyes quite well, he found—but his shoes were actually less expensive than traditional handmade shoes, which involve a pair of custom "lasts, " or shoe forms, for each client. Choo had a strong sense for fashion and embellishment, and his designs became a favorite of Diana, the Princess of Wales. Fashionistas were also devoted clients, and in 1996 a stylist for British Vogue named Tamara Yeardye Mellon suggested they start a larger-scale shoe business together. Mellon's father, who had made part of his fortune overseeing the expansion of the Vidal Sassoon hair-care empire in the 1970s, agreed to bankroll the start-up costs.
Choo's new line was manufactured at an Italian factory, and then shipped to top department stores such as Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. There was also a chic new London boutique with his name on it, but there was some sniping over who had actually designed the Jimmy Choos—the designer himself, or Choi and Mellon—and the partnership soured. Thomas Yeardye, Tamara Mellon's father, had been impressed with how well the $400-a-pair shoes were selling, and funded an ambitious expansion plan involving an increase in production and the number of freestanding Jimmy Choo stores. The partnership grew even more acrimonious, as Choi, the niece, told Evgenia Peretz in Vanity Fair. She and her uncle, she noted, "were just trying to be sure that, whatever we're investing in, we're not going backwards. To be fair, on Jimmy's side, he's got responsibility. He's got family that he needs to bring up.… Whereas, on the other side, the Yeardye family, they're all set up. To them, it's a gamble, and it could go sky-high and everything could be wonderful, or it could be in shambles. But it doesn't quite affect them."
Choi eventually joined the Yeardye side, and the partnership rearranged in 2001, with Choo retaining the name to his own custom line, while the Yeardye-managed retail line carried on. By then the Jimmy Choo name had become as prominent as that of another high-end women's footwear designer, Manolo Blahnik, and was mentioned frequently in the fashion press. Characters on the hit HBO series The Sopranos and Sex and the City referenced the brand. The Jimmy Choo line also gained some priceless press attention when the 19-year-old twin daughters of U.S. president George W. Bush wore Jimmy Choo cashmere stiletto boots on their father's inauguration day in 2001. Later that year, the brand earned a somewhat more infamous distinction when a well-known Manhattan publicist, Lizzie Grubman, crashed her car into a crowd outside a nightclub in the posh resort town of Southampton in what witnesses said was a temper tantrum behind the wheel. According to other bystanders, one of the accident victims asked her friend to remove her Jimmy Choo heels from her feet, so that paramedics would not have to cut them off in their haste to treat her injuries.
Choo, who married a fellow student from Cord-wainers' College and has a daughter, still makes about five pairs of custom shoes weekly at his by-appointment-only workshop in central London. These Jimmy Choos bear the "handmade" designation on their soles, unlike those sold at top retailers and in the 30 Jimmy Choo stores around the world. He is the recipient of an Order of the British Empire (OBE) designation, as well as a Dato title, the Malaysian equivalent of a peerage. His rather old-fashioned style of business, much in the style of his father's artisanry, suits him better than designing full-scale, fashion-driven collections. "Shoes are a personal thing, a personal touch, " he said in an interview with Rose Shepherd of London's Mail on Sunday. "Everyone can sketch them, but to understand where they're comfortable, where they fit, where's the balance, that's important."
Sources
Books
Contemporary Fashion , second ed., St. James Press, 2002.
Periodicals
Footwear News , July 29, 1991, p. 64; December 6, 2004, p. 22.
Mail on Sunday (London, England), April 23, 2000, p. 7.
Mirror (London, England), December 22, 2001, p. 6.
New York Times Magazine , December 1, 2002, p. 102.
Times (London, England), July 16, 2001, p. 7.
Vanity Fair , August 2005, p. 124.
— Carol Brennan

Other References http://skorcareer.com.my/blog/jimmy-choo-from-penang-to-london-based-billionaire/2007/11/16/ http://malaysiannews.info/2011/05/jimmy-choo-brand-or-man-from-malaysia.html#ixzz2EEu4RYVm
http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2006-A-Ec/Choo-Jimmy.html#ixzz2EF0LikRP