Ms. Parker met Mr. Malkemus in the early ’80s; she was a young actress working in Los Angeles, and he and Mr. Blahnik were in town for a trunk show.
“I didn’t have a great deal of money,” she said in an interview, “but I bought a lot of shoes, though I wasn’t in a position to do so. I was enchanted when a few months later they arrived and Manolo had signed them. In my estimation and Pat’s estimation” — Patricia Field, the costume designer for “Sex and the City” — “Manolos were ‘the’ shoe, and when we started doing the show, we came to George.”
George Dewey Malkemus 3rd was born on Feb. 23, 1954, in San Antonio, Texas. His parents, George Jr. and Dorothy (Hesskew) Malkemus, were federal employees. The younger Mr. George attended Baylor University in Waco as a pre-med student for a few years before moving to New York City in the late 1970s. He met Mr. Yurgaitis, then a model, while working as a salesman at Paul Stuart, the men’s store. They married in 2013.
In addition to Mr. Yurgaitis, Mr. Malkemus is survived by his father; a sister, Cynthia Malkemus Green; and two brothers, Perry and Mark.
Mr. Blahnik and Mr. Malkemus ended their partnership in 2019. In a statement reported by Women’s Wear Daily, Mr. Malkemus said that Mr. Blahnik’s niece, who was running the Blahnik business, had “offered unacceptable terms” and that he and Mr. Yurgaitis had declined to renew their license of 37 years.
He soon shuttered the townhouse, on East 54th Street, that they had subsequently bought in the late 1990s to house the boutique. Last year, he reopened it as the Manhattan flagship for Ms. Parker’s brand. She and Mr. Malkemus were the designers, and the shoes — though feminine, pretty and often sparkly — don’t look like Blahnik-manques.
