Jimmy Choo's 10-centimeter heels.

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"I don't think the word comfortable is very sexy," says Choi about those at least 10 centimeters on display, each of which are beautifully and carefully presented on a crystal-clear glass box under the spotlight.

And it's a lesson perhaps learned even before her days at Jimmy Choo. Choi has been with the brand almost since Day 1, helping her uncle like an intern.

"I have always loved fashion," she recalls. "I grew up in Hong Kong. At the age of 11 or 12, I started discovering Japanese magazines, flicking through them and wanting to become a Japanese pop star. That's very teenage."

After she got back to England where her parents worked and lived, the strange all-English-speaking environment pushed the Cantonese-speaking girl more into the non-language-involving subjects, such as math and art.

But it was not until around the age of 15 and 16, during the 1980s, when a piece of John Galliano's Vogue show with his deconstructed jacket that she decided to turn her interest to something serious, if not a lifelong career. That was also when she moved to London and lived with her uncle Jimmy and her aunt.

Unsurprisingly, the decision was not much understood by her parents, who don't think "one can make a career out of making clothes", though the two restaurateurs are big fans of art and creative things.