Manolo says, here is the marvelous New York Daily News article on the maestro di tutti maestri, the inimitable Manolo Blahnik.

So when Sofia Coppola needed a designer to re-create the period’s decadent shoes that were handed to the spoiled queen (Kirsten Dunst) on a posh pillow, she called on Blahnik.

Her film, “Marie Antoinette,” opening Oct. 20, is partly based on an Antonia Fraser biography of the queen that takes a particularly sympathetic tack, much like Manolo’s, on the subject.

Movie buff Blahnik started his homework by studying original 18th-century shoes in Paris. The Victoria and Albert museum in London gave him footwear that belonged to the French queen. “So I did some kind of a cross between academic and a little bit of fantasy,” he says.

But then, his shoes – especially the film’s, a collection of candy-colored heels embellished with ribbon and buttons and beads – are a fantasy.

“Indeed, that is the only thing I want to offer to people,” he says. “Of course, I’m like everybody else; I have to do black and brown shoes and a little bit of Mary Janes and satin, but my nature is kind of theatrical, simple and dramatic.”

Yet again, the Maestro proves why he is worthy of our adoration.

Manolo says, ayyyyyy! The Manolo has been so busy this past week that he has let slip by the most important date, the one year anniversary of the most super fantastic Never teh Bride becoming the editor and blogger-in-the-chief of the Manolo for the Bride Blog.

In the opinion of the humble Shoeblogger, no one is as knowledgable or as enthusiastic about the weddings and the brides, and no one writes abouts such things as well, as intelligently, or with as much humor as the Never teh Bride.

She is quite simply the best at writing about the weddings today, which, considering there are several of the magazines and hundreds of the books devoted to this topic, makes this the not inconsiderable achievement.

So, the Manolo would now tell you to go to the Manolo for the Brides so that you may see that the good blogging is really just the good writing, and that the exceptionally smart and funny writers can make you interested in the most unlikely subjects.

Listening to…

Manolo says, Les Musiques Que J’Aime = The Collected Works of Klaus Nomi

Manolo asks, how high must the platform shoes be before the pants actually fit?

Manolo says, it is Tuesday, time to see what the Manolo is…

Reading…

Watching…

Listening to…

Eating…

While the Manolo found the digital effects in the Flyboys movie, the Manolo has to say that James Franco is not all that. Indeed, although he looks heavenly, in the James Dean-ish sort of way, he was perhaps also the worst thing about the whole movie, and is simply the mediocre actor.

Manolo says, ayyyyyyy!

We outfitted our entire wedding party in Crocs. We had such a great time and everyone was so comfortable. Guys in black Metro, girls in red beach’s, flower girls and bride in white beach’s.

Ayyyyyyyyyy!

Manolo says, “When I am an old woman I shall wear nothing but a red hat that doesn’t go and doesn’t suit me.”

Manolo says, here is the Manolo’s latest column for the Express of the Washington Post.

Dear Manolo,

I must attend a vintage automobile show in Hershey, PA, this weekend. Apparently, it rains every year, and much of the show takes place in muddy fields. What is a girl to do?

Katiana

Manolo says, ayyyy! Antique automobiles in the muddy field in the mythical place of inexpensive chocolate!

This, it sounds to the Manolo like the beginning of the newly-discovered Roald Dahl book, in which the poor, but clever child is subjected to the various plot-driven tortures involving the evil aunties and their cocoa-powered 1937 Packard Super Eight.

However, most amazingly of all, this place Hershey, it really and truly exists; the marvelous land of mud and chocolate where apparently even the most super fantastic peoples are up to their knees in one thing or the other.

And so the Manolo would recommend to his friend this beautiful pink rubber boot from the Pucci, as being suitable for wearing to the muddy car show, and for afterwards wading in the open-air syrup ponds that ring the caramel meadows for which that portion of Pennsylvania is so rightly famous.

Remember, as the Manolo always says, Pucci makes the smiles!

Manolo says, for some reason, this picture makes the Manolo sad.

Manolo says, zzzzzzzzzz. Eh? Oh.

Many apologies. The Manolo had dozed off for the moment, so lulled was he by the tedium of this penultimate episode of the Project Runway 3.

Here is what the Manolo remembers of the show before soft-eyed Hypnos arrived to carry off the Manolo:

1. Tim Gunn, the academic dean at the institution of higher eduation, has the large vocabulary! Three dollar words! Like the “caucus” or the “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”!

Of the course, such facility with language is to be ridiculed by the television viewers, especially by those who can only repeatedly describe bad things as “serious ugly”, or who cluck and cackle in their own private bird languages.

2. The extremely handsomey, Jude-Lawish Keith is as unrepentant and as ego-maniacal as ever, and thus it is indeed the shame that he was kicked off of the show, as undoubtedly he would have given us many hours of guilty pleasure hating him. Him so bad.

3. Vincent is as crazy as the barrel of the rabid fruit bats, and only half as nice to the little peoples.

4. After reviewing the passive-aggressive behavior of the Angela’s mother, the Manolo has more sympathy for the Jeffery, who is still the twit but not as evil as first supposed.

5. Finally, and most revealingly, all it takes is the five-second clip of the Jay McCarroll to realize that he is still the best, smartest, and funniest contestant ever on the Project Runway.

The Jay recognized exactly what the Manolo said about the Michael many weeks ago, that being the outsider from the hinterlands is the advantage in this contest. It is socially difficult to be the fashion designer in the places outside of the New York or the Los Angeles, and such social difficulty encourages the development of the strong individual and sometimes eccentric vision. While, the New York and the Los Angeles can potentially homogenize those who are there for too long.

The Manolo adores the Jay and hopes that he will soon achieve that which he is capable of achieving.

And now, it is on to the final episode!

Manolo says, the Manolo’s amusing and smart internet friends at the blog of the Mental Floss magazine are discussing the origins of the high heels.

How did women get to the point of wanting to look like genetically-modified hooved freaks? They should start by blaming ancient Egyptians and Greeks, 16th-century European nobles, and Louis XIV, all of whom helped set the trend.

As one would imagine, this topic it is of great interest to the Manolo, who is the most avid amateur historian of the shoe.

Manolo says, or perhaps the baby raccoons. Something you might catch late at night tipping over your gargbage cans.