"Jimmy Choo" Sculpture

Jimmy Choo Sculpture, Muntri Street, George Town, Penang (1 July 2012)


Jimmy Choo (GPS: 5.42065, 100.33416) is a steel-rod sculpture celebrating perhaps the most famous living Penangite, the eponymous shoe designer. Although intended for Muntri Street, it is in fact on a wall facing Leith Street, a short distance from the junction with Muntri Street. The steel-rod sculpture is based on the caricature of local cartoonist Baba Chuah, and is one of those put up by Sculpture at Work.

The reason for placing the sculpture here has to do with the Hong Kong Shoe Store at 177 Munstri Street. This is the workshop in which Jimmy Choo began his apprenticeship in shoe making. But more than that, for a short spell Choo is said to have also operated a roadside cobbler on the five-foot way along Leith Street, in front of the premises that is today GalaHouse. But instead of remaining a roadside cobbler all his life, Choo (whose actual surname is Chow, but misspelled on his birth certificate when he was born in 1957) continued his education at Cordwainers' Technical College (which then became Cordwainers College and eventually part of London College of Fashion) in London.

Jimmy Choo's handmade shoes were first made famous by the late Diana, Princess of Wales. Since then, it has been the choice of the world's many major celebrities, and turning Choo into one himself.

Hong Kong Shoe Store (1 July 2012)


Monsak Ja Singh showing the Jimmy Choo Sculpture which adorns the wall of his restaurant, GalaHouse (1 June 2016)


Timothy Tye with Jimmy Choo (6 June 2014)

Jimmy Choo's Sculpture is on the map of Leith Street

List of Steel-Rod Sculptures by Baba Chuah, Marking George Town Sculptures and Penang Street Art