Nina Christen Accepts Designer of the Year Award at 2025 FNAAs

Nina Christen accepted the Designer of the Year Award from June Ambrose at the 2025 Footwear News Achievement Awards in New York City on Wednesday.

Ambrose said in her remarks, “You know in fashion we love to say a great shoe can change your posture. But a brilliant shoe designer can change your entire point of view. And tonight I have the absolute pleasure of celebrating someone whose work has been changing mine for years.”

She continued to laud the work of Christen, who has her own self-named label and is the design director of shoes at Dior: “Nina Christen is a designer whose fingerprint — well, sketches — are all over some of the most iconic footwear moments in modern fashion. She has this rare ability to move seamlessly from serious and sculptural to wildly clever and delightfully unexpected. And every fashion house lucky enough to have her has been transformed by her imagination long before she began to build her own world with her namesake collection.”

Ambrose went on, “I’ve been a longtime admirer of Nina, Nina’s talent for merging craft with attitude, intelligence with irreverence. Her shoes don’t just complete a look, they spark a dialogue, shift atmosphere and remind us that style is both emotion and an experience. But beyond the talent, Nina has the spirit of a true artist. And though she might come up here and seem quite shy, she’s curious, humble, wickedly funny and endlessly inventive. It is an honor to stand here tonight not just as a fan, but as a friend, who has watched her brilliance from up close and from afar. Please help me to celebrate this year’s Footwear News Designer of the Year, the extraordinary Nina Christen.”

Thanking Ambrose and Michael Atmore, Christen shared, “I’m known for not talking so much, so it is a pleasure trying to deliver this speech to you.”

The designer, known for an array of unique shoe creations across various brands, communicated how important it is to not limit herself in her work.

“‘Nothing is impossible’ is a phrase that is always pushing me forward in my work,” she said. “I heard that phrase many years ago at the heel factory when I started making heels. I had this crazy idea and I was like, ‘Is that even possible? I think that must be impossible to make.’ And the heel maker said, ‘Well Nina, we made Venice, we built a city on water — nothing is impossible.’ And this spirit reflects the spirit of the suppliers that I work with and also guides me throughout my work because I’ve always tried to think nothing is impossible however crazy the idea might seem like.”

She went on to thank several people, a list which concluded with her father — “for being the first one telling me that nothing is impossible, whatever the idea might be.”

For 39 years, the annual FN Achievement Awards — often called the “Shoe Oscars” — have celebrated the style stars, best brand stories, ardent philanthropists, emerging talents and industry veterans. The 2025 event is supported by Caleres, Listrak, Nordstrom, Skechers, Vibram and Wolverine Worldwide.