Manolo’s Shoe Blog

Manolo says, many of the Manolo’s friends they have been asking the Manolo for the advice for the holiday giving, saying

Manolo, please help us, we are foundering in the sea of gift-giving choices! We do not know what to get the husband, or the wife, and/or the person of the significant otherness!

The Manolo says to his many internet friends, be not afraid, over the next week or the two the Manolo he will provide you with the assistance you require to make this the most super fantastic of the holiday seasons.

Today, it is the part one of the gift books!

As the Manolo’s many internet friends know, the Manolo he is the great reader, and thus the subject of the books it is dear to the heart of the Manolo. And so here are the few of the books that the Manolo himself will be giving his friends this year.

Manolo’s #1 Book of the Year

Blahnik by Boman: Shoes, Photographs, Conversation

This it is the most gorgeous of the books for the table of the coffee that the Manolo the Shoeblogger has ever seen. It is simply beautiful.

Yes, the text it is as the Maestro Manolo Blahnik has described it, the “vomitarian” stream of the consciousness, however you do not want this book for the writing, but for the gorgeous pictures of the shoes of the master presented in the whimsical tableaus. This it is the perfect gift for the person who loves the shoes and the beauty.

The Perfect Book for the Man Who Would Be Well Dressed

Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion

This book it is the Bible of the fashion for the man. If your husband, or boyfriend, or your man of other significantness does not have this book on his dressing room table, you must buy it for him. Give him this book as the not so subtle hint that perhaps his wardrobe it needs the improvement.

Manolo’s Favorite New Cookbook

Tapas : A Taste of Spain in America

It is not the secret that the Manolo he is something of the gourmand, and is the habitual reader of the books on the cooking and the eating. So, you can trust the Manolo when he notes that this book it is worth giving to your culinarily inclined friends. Even the better, the Jose Andres, he is the delightful character, and his charm it infuses this attractive and easy to use book.

Manolo’s Favorite New Fashion History Book

The Essence of Style : How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafes, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour

The Manolo loves the Louis XIV! The opulence! The excess! The beautiful red shoes with the bows!

Manolo’s Favorite Book by the Personal Friend of the Manolo

The Seasoning of a Chef : My Journey from Diner to Ducasse and Beyond

The Manolo he runs with the literary/culinary crowd, and this book, which has caused such the uproar among the professional chefs, it is written by the chef Doug Psaltis and his twin the Michael Psaltis, who also happens to be the Manolo’s literary agent. Even if this connection it did not exist, the Manolo he would recommend this book to those who enjoy the culinary books.

The Chef Doug he is the magnificently obsessed person, one who has dedicated his life completely to the good food, to the extent that his own memoir often makes him look like the jerk, but always amusingly so.

Tomorrow the Manolo will present to you his favorite works of the new fiction.

Manolo shouts, Happy Birthday to the Maestro Manolo Blahnik!

Born this date in the 1942.

We are not worthy.

Manolo shouts, Hasselhoff! And he has won the blue ribbon!

Manolo says, why should the Il Papa have all the fun with the red shoes?

This attractive fun and funky shoe from the Bruno Magli, it would look good at the less formal party of the holidays. Even the better, is is on the sale , over 50% off, the savings of $140 of the American dollars!

Manolo says, the Manolo he has been so busy the past week, doing the various things the Manolo does, that he has neglected to point to the efforts of the Manolo’s internet friend, the Almost the Girl in what she has named the “Black Friday Blogging”.

Here is the Almost the Girl’s call to the arms.

Thus I am inviting you to participate in a fashion blogging event. Next Friday is Black Friday, the biggest shopping day in America. I am asking other fashion bloggers to join me in blogging about their own views on fashion, consumption, individuality, and the importance of fashion in our lives. I am encouraging any other fashion bloggers to join me in this endeavor, just make your own political fashion statements about your view on consumption and fashion and I will link up and we can hopefully dialogue about the importance of individuality in fashion! I would like this to grow organically so please email your fashion blogging friends to join the fun!

Many times over the past year the Manolo he has discussed the importance of the fashion, usually in connection with the utterances of the Manolo’s muse, the Miuccia Prada.

However, here for the Black Friday are the Manolo’s political beliefs, summed up in the following short statements.

1) Everyone has the right to be super fantastic. The Manolo he is the proud and strong believer in the personal freedoms, in the ability of the autonomous individual to dress in manner he or she desires (even if the manner chosen it is awful).

2) Manolo loves the Capitalism! Nothing is more worthy of the ridicule than the fashion sense of the dictators, politburos, autocrats, and tyrants. For the example, the most horrible, deadening, life-sucking piece of the fashion ever invented, it is the Mao suit, for it reduces the individual to the mere cog in the ideological machine. Happily we live in the system in which the marketplace it is free to deliver to the peoples the beautiful clothes, enabling each individual to dress in the manner he or she chooses.

3) The luxury it is often worth the expense. This it is currently the topic of the discussion between the Manolo’s friend the Virginia Postrel and the Almost the Girl, where they are pondering whether the Bottega Veneta handbag could be worth $21,000. The answer of the Manolo to this question: it depends on the handbag. (He has not seen this particular handbag, so he cannot pass the judgement yet.) There are certain items that truly justify great expense. This it is why the Manolo he repeatedly advises his many internet friends to save their money and purchase the most super fantastic shoes possible.

4) Sometimes, the luxury it is not worth the expense. This it is why one must come to know oneself, to know what works and does not work as the suitable personal style, and to know what is truly luxurious and what is the fraud.

5) The clothes they are important. They say important things about your identity, even if you pretend that they do not.

6) The fashion it is not the nuclear rocket brain surgery. One does not need the grounding in the theoretical sciences to know how to dress well.

7) Manolo loves the shoes! Enough said!

We shall continue this discussion in the comments section.

Manolo says, the Manolo he is confused. Is this some sort of the outfit for the breastfeeding?

P.S. The Manolo he loves the Mariah Carey, she is like the beautiful, glittering, overstuffed butterfly, who can sing but cannot be trusted to dress herself.

Manolo says, the Shoes.com they are having the big Thanksgiving sale. Perhaps you will find some shoes that you can wear for the festivities of the holidays.

Perhaps something like this handsome t-strap from the Taryn Rose. It is selling for 30% off the usual price.

Or these patent leather pumps from the Isaac Mizrahi, also 30% off of the regular price.

Manolo says, the Manolo he cannot but wish his many internet friends the most Happy Thanksgiving!

There is so much for which the Manolo is indeed most thankful, but chief among these things of thankfullness are the internet friends of the Manolo, who have always been so kind and so supportive of this mildly ridiculous blog and of the Manolo himself.

You may be certain that as the Manolo he bows his head in the attitude of thanks before the gobbling of the turkey, that he will remember from whence the Manolo’s many blessings flow, from the many friends who read his blog, from the country which has nourished his dreams, and from the divine providence which has provided us all with such bounty.

So, it is truly the Day of Thanksgiving.

Manolo says, the Manolo he has been quoted in the Colorado Springs Independent regarding the hideousness that is the Crocs, and this on the eve of the company’s offering the public the stock.

The shoe may have its B list of celebrity devotees — Graham Nash, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Garner and her main squeeze, Ben “Kiss of Death” Affleck — but there also are plenty of fashionistas decrying the whole plastic-shoe fad and hoping it will go away soon.

Crocs are the latest atrocity to be added to Manolo the Shoe Blogger’s “Gallery of the Horrors,” a collection of some of the ugliest shoes of all time (shoeblogs.com/horrors.html). They’re right up there with Uggs (”the only peoples who should be wearing this boot are the preteen girls who love the Hello Kitty”), the Birkenstock Boston (”looks like it was put together by the blind medieval monks, for wear by the peasants of the mud”) and the Dansko Teton (”glorified, heavy-duty house slippers”). But Manolo seems particularly offended by the popular rationale for Crocs, since it implies that style and comfort are incompatible: “Why must the ‘comfort’ always be the war cry of those who would lead us into the bad shoes?”

The fashion mavens’ aversion to Crocs isn’t merely an aesthetic problem for the company. If, as Manolo suggests, Crocs are a bad idea that should be discarded on the ash heap of shoe history, if they are the next Uggs, then that makes the effort to take the company public a bit gamier than the usual IPO. Among the “risk factors” Crocs notes in its SEC filings are the company’s relatively short history, its reliance on a small product line and the fickleness of the shoe-buying public.

Fickleness of the public, indeed! If it had been left up to the Manolo, the baby Crocs they would have been strangled in their cradle.