What the Manolo Is…
Manolo says, it is the Tuesday, and here is what the Manolo is…
The Manolo he cannot but recommend to you this book by the Joan DeJean, The Essence of Style : How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafes, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour. It combines several of the Manolo’s many obsessions: shoes, and fashion, and cuisine, and the history of the shoes, and the history of the fashion, and the history of the cuisine, and the importance of the luxury and the style.
There is the entire chapter devoted to the development of the super sexy shoes at the court of the Louis XIV. Even the better, the Joan DeJean she even understands that one of the Manolo’s favorite works of the art, the Fragonard’s Swing, it is all about the shoes!
This it is indeed the super fantastic book!
July 19th, 2005 at 11:47 am
Mon cher Manolo, there is a much better image of Monsieur Fragonard’s painting here. It englarges enough so that you can see the shoe more clearly (to say nothing of Mademoiselle’s priest-lover. Or is he a bishop?).
July 19th, 2005 at 11:52 am
This is so much more in keeping with my image of Manolo than last week’s selections of Cormac McCarthy’s western novels and Mexican corridos. This is the man, after all, who writes a blog about women’s shoes.
July 19th, 2005 at 11:55 am
Fragonard’s swing: You know what they’re going to do once she gets down from that swing, no?
July 19th, 2005 at 12:17 pm
They’re going to make that poor servant very uncomfortable. There’s a reason the artistocracy ended up [i]sans[/i] head.
I guess it’s a lovely painting. All I can think about, though, is the poor guy in charge of pushing her on that swing. Like, everyday. For very little money.
July 19th, 2005 at 1:22 pm
Oh, that naughty Fragonard swinging lady and her billowing skirts, affording her hidden paramour such a view beyond the shoe! Oh launching shoe, the promise of a further state of wild deshabille!
“J’ai deux amours…”
One thing I have never understood: why is her unwittingly cuckolded fellow in the background seated? And holding reins? It is like no mechanism of swing-mobilization that I have ever seen.
July 19th, 2005 at 1:27 pm
The person pushing the girl is usually considered to be the other boyfriend of the girl in the swing, and sometimes even a priest in the lay clothing. The joke of the picture is that the guy pushing her is unaware of the other fellow looking up her skirt hiding behind the bushes. There is nothing in the picture like a business card that says he is the professional swing pusher. Do not bring in the head of the Marx and get too purposefully upset by the fine art paintings because it will prevent you from enjoying them. The woodcock also recommends that the people read the Rape of the Masters by the Roger Kimball, which documents the weird misreadings of the fine paintings by the ambitious and vain professors of the art history. Thanks for the tip on the de Jean book, the Manolo!
July 19th, 2005 at 1:44 pm
I just posted a picture of young women wearing flipflops to meet President Bush.
What a tragedy!!!!
July 19th, 2005 at 1:45 pm
Ok, I have mud on my face-I guess it helps to read the entry below to realize the Manolo has done the same!
July 19th, 2005 at 1:49 pm
Tania: the man in the background is not seated, he is bent forward. He is pulling on the reins in order to pull the swing backwards; the swing moves forward like a pendulum. It’s not like pushing your child on a swing, where you stand close and push forward.
July 19th, 2005 at 2:27 pm
I couldn’t help but notice that the swing lady is wearing dainty pink closed-toe mules with a kitten heel and a bow on the arch. I don’t think I’ve seen any shoes like that yet. But with the examples of neo-Rococco-ism that the Manolo has shown us lately, perhaps we’ll see them in stores soon? How much fun would that be?
July 19th, 2005 at 3:06 pm
For the VeddyVeddyBadAng — are these shoes not Rococco and festive? http://www.zappos.com/n/p/dp/7001769/c/42245.html, as are these? http://www.zappos.com/n/p/dp/5932588/c/35108.html. Indeed, the superfabulous Zappos.com has many of the pleasing mules.
July 19th, 2005 at 3:50 pm
How fussy, the Fragonard swing mechanism! I bet the reins are there to indicate that he is not doing anything so indecorous as, heaven forfend, shoving a lady’s bottom to propel her. (He still, to me, looks as though he is seated on a ledge, and not in any way as if he is leaning forward.) The statues in the painting, incidentally, are also tremendously amusing. The one on the left seems to be putting a finger to its lips as if to say, “Shhhhhhh.”
July 19th, 2005 at 10:10 pm
the man pulling the reins is indeed sitting on a bench
July 20th, 2005 at 1:49 pm
If you enjoy ‘Dangerous Liasons’ you might find ‘Valmont’ an even better telling of the same tale without the big movie stars to distract from a great story.