Comments on: What Is the Shoe?

By: TinaDiva

TinaDiva — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:26:38 +0000

How fabulous to have discovered heaven! Where have I been to have only just found you, Manolo. No wonder my life felt empty!
To join the debate: perhaps we need to consider that there are two types of shoe collection.
1. Shoes which are practical clothes for feet and serve a specific purpose like sneakers for the gym, or in my case a multitude of riding boots and wellies for general horse riding, competition horse riding, mucking out in winter, mucking out in summer etc etc.
2. Shoes which are akin to art and are adornment for the feet or mantelpiece (and yes, I have shoes for display on both).
Therefore slippers or flip flops of great beauty should of course be counted as contributing to one’s ‘shoes as art’ collection; and those of no beauty, but they keep your feet warm or provide a layer between your precious feet and the grossness of whatever you might need to step on, should be relegated to the practical collection.
So to my mind the debate not just about what constitutes a ‘shoe’ but also about which collection it should be attributed to. I consider my shoes of beauty to be an important contribution to my interior design and therefore are more than a mere shoe.
How fabulous to be able to pontificate on my favourite subject.

By: furlagirl

furlagirl — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:45:32 +0000

Prada sneakers are shoes.

The things you wear to work out at the gym are not.

By: La BellaDonna

La BellaDonna — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 15:25:55 +0000

Hah! La BellaDonna, she is at the other end of the spectrum from the Veddy Veddy Bad Ang (hola to the VVBA!); she has the pair – perhaps even somewhere, the two pair – of the flipflops, which followed her home from pedicures, and are … somewhere. Indoors. Yet La BellaDonna, she has the many pairs of what are undoubtedly the “slippers” – gold leather, silver leather, purple velvet embroidered with gold spangles, brown velvet embellished with copper spangles, biscuit embroidered with pearls, black silk damask mules … the list, it goes on and on, especially as it is difficult to tell where “slipper” territory ends. As it happens, many of the shoes La BellaDonna owns are the ballet slippers, which would seem to be self-identifying: the little denim ballet slippers with the perky red bows, the amusing leopard ballet slippers which La BellaDonna has bound with the black velvet ribbon, the slippers with the cherries printed on them, the polka-dotted slippers … And this, it does not include other slippers which La BellaDonna longs for: the burgundy velvet slippers with the rhinestone ornaments, the bright metallic red leather slippers, the suitable pair in camouflage – woodland pattern, not urban … These and their ilk, they either have their own boxes, or deserve to, and perforce La BellaDonna supposes she must count them as shoes.

By: Designer Ella

Designer Ella — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 08:29:54 +0000

Well-written article, Manolo! The topic is funny because I have been known to state, “sneakers are not shoes.” He he. What then about the sneakers, is your opinion?

By: Tania

Tania — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 05:48:14 +0000

Such wisdom! I definitely do not count flip-flops… or at least I wouldn’t, if I owned any.

By: sfmike

sfmike — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 05:32:19 +0000

Even after you have laid your perfect wisdom and most considered advice on the grayest and most contentious of minor issues, Manolo, there are still doubters, objectors and schisms as can be seen in the comments above. Listen, folks, the guru of the shoes has spoken on the numbering of said objects and I for one am taking his Word as gospel.

By: rockmara

rockmara — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 03:13:03 +0000

“Philatelist.”

The Manolo is not only the maestro of the witty rhetoric re: the shoes, but also master of the general metaphor.

Molto bravo.

By: Daisy

Daisy — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:39:43 +0000

What, then of the slipper socks? They look unquestionably sock-like, but are meant to be worn on their own (albeit, only indoors), and some go so far as to have rubber or leather soles. As always, it is the questions in the gray areas that pose the greatest challenges to philosophy.

By: Poochie

Poochie — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:28:14 +0000

If you keep your slippers or flipflops protected (such as in their box) they should count. I count the sneakers I keep in their box but not the ones I keep by the door or the flip flops in my car in case I stop for a spur-of-the moment pedicure!

But I need all the help I can with keeping the count down as I would totally blow the Australian shoe bell curve with 100+ pairs of shoes and growing.

Most of them are heels, which can be tricky on the snow days like today.

By: Poochie

Poochie — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:27:48 +0000

But I need all the help I can with keeping the count down as I would totally blow the Australian shoe bell curve with 100+ pairs of shoes and growing.

Most of them are heels, which can be tricky on the snow days like today.