Since joining Manolo Blahnik in 2009, Kristina Blahnik, the founder’s niece and from 2013 the firm’s CEO, has been leading the family-run business into new markets while honoring its creative heritage.

“When you embark on joining a family business, you have to build your own identity within that,” says Blahnik. "This business is a member of my family. It comes with highs and lows, but we work through them because we’re together."

Under her leadership, Manolo Blahnik has refined its creative direction and consumer engagement, and streamlined its wholesale strategy. This helped manifest the brand’s first store in China, at Shanghai’s Plaza 66, which opened in November 2024. A year on, the store has become a touchpoint for the brand, allowing it to meaningfully engage with a customer base that had historically relied on international travel to purchase its designs.

Recorded after the opening of the Victoria & Albert Museum’s exhibition on Marie Antoinette, where Manolo Blahniks play a leading role for their appearances in Sofia Coppola’s movie, Blahnik reflects on why the family business continues to resonate culturally as much as commercially.

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Amid ongoing turbulence in luxury e-commerce, Munich-based Mytheresa is demonstrating the resilience of its curated, customer-first strategy. In the year ending June 30, 2025, it posted year-on-year net sales growth of 8.9% and a 4.9% rise in EBITDA margin, while gross merchandise value per top customer climbed 16.1% in the fourth quarter.

Behind the company’s steady growth is Michael Kliger, who has led Mytheresa since 2015 with a focus on consistency, curation, and customer experience. “My objective is to have even more enthusiastic customers shopping for our brands. We are not chasing revenue. If you do that and they stay and they buy, the financials are an outcome," says Kliger.

Since Kliger took the helm, the luxury e-tailer has expanded globally — debuting a Chinese site in 2016 and listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021. In April 2025, Mytheresa completed its acquisition of Yoox Net-a-Porter from Richemont, forming the new luxury group LuxExperience.

In Jing Daily’s sit-down interview at Mytheresa’s New York office during fashion week, Kliger shares how the company finds steady growth through consistency, and his multi-year strategy for unifying the newly formed e-commerce powerhouse.

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