Swanky society parties are always a great opportunity to show off your fanciest, and most ludicrously expensive, high heels.
But guests at billionaire John Caudwell’s sprawling £250 million Mayfair mansion last week were told they’d have to check in their shoes at the door. That even included footwear king Jimmy Choo – a man who once created a £3.4 million pair of diamond-encrusted stilettos.
Phones4u founder Caudwell was clearly keen to protect the floors of his 15-bedroom, eight-storey property, which is the size of 55 average London flats.
Decorated with 20,000 sheets of gold leaf, it has its own ballroom, cinema, swimming pool, snow shower and eight-car ‘stacker’ to get his vintage cars into the underground garage. There’s even a river flowing through some of the rooms, stocked with fish from Africa.
John joked that some of the guests, who also included designer Karen Millen, singer Peter Andre, and former England rugby captain Chris Robshaw, might leave with better shoes than they arrived in.
John Caudwell with florist Amie Bone and designer Jimmy Choo
FEET FIRST: Host John Caudwell with singer Peter Andre
Chris, 37, lamented: ‘I’ve got a nice pair of Ugg slippers I wear. I would have brought them if I’d known!’
The bash was to launch the Butterfly Ball, which takes place at the Rothschild family retreat in Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire, in May in aid of the Caudwell Children charity.
John said of his philanthropic endeavours: ‘I don’t feel any obligation to give back, but society is in a dreadful place, and it needs help. I’m in a position to do that, so why wouldn’t I?’
The 71-year-old tycoon has promised to give away 70 per cent of his wealth to charity and was happy to make digs at other billionaires – such as a certain Amazon founder – who don’t do the same.
‘Jeff Bezos could give 99 per cent of his wealth away, be the hero of the world, and still be richer than me,’ John told me. ‘I don’t know why he doesn’t do it. Why do people want this colossal wealth?’
Caudwell has just added to his coffers by renting his 239ft superyacht Titania to The Crown’s producers to recreate Princess Diana’s final holiday with Dodi Al Fayed.
‘It was nice to see,’ he said of the Netflix debut of his yacht, which costs £480,000 a week to charter.
