APR
2011 04

Botas Exoticas: The Leningrad Cowboys

Manolo says, the Manolo’s internet friend, the Yum Yum, has pointed to high-spirited Finnish rock band known as the Leningrad Cowboys, who for the past twenty years have been wearing the pointy hair and the pointier shoes. In 1993, they even did the concert with the Red Army Chorus, of which the video below is the amusing artifact. To the Manolo, the pointy-toes and pompadours of the Leningrad Cowboys have more in common with the Japanese Rockabilly dancers as the obvious appropriation and exaggeration of the American rock iconography, while the sudden appearance of the botas exoticas of the baile…

APR
2011 04

FN Shoe Star, Episode 10

Many says, here is the latest episode of FN Shoe Star competition in which the remaining five designers present to the judges their versions of the toning shoes. As you may recall, the Manolo was less than thrilled with this challenge, and, predictably enough, the resulting shoes justify the wariness of the Manolo. But, this was to be expected, yes? “Make the toning shoe out of recycled material.” Heh. But, before we can go to the judges table to view the carnage, we are treated to 45 mildly amusing seconds of Vasilios! kvetching at the designers, and offering not much…

APR
2011 04

Diego Dolcini Tie-Ankle Cutout For the Monday

Manolo says, it is Monday and you are back at your desk wishing you could be outside where the weather has turned seasonably vernal. Outside, the bees are pollinating, the flowers flowerating, and the birds bird-a-mating, and you yearn to be with them, enjoying this green day. The color of April is green, in the hundred thousand shades, dotted with the reds, and yellows, blues, and purples of the flowers that spring from the earth like the happy child leaping into your arms. Inside, however, spring can gain no purchase in the land of eternal beige. It was beige in…

APR
2011 04

Botas ExÃ³ticas: Mexican Vaquero Elves!

Manolo says, from the Vice Magazine’s VBS.TV comes this amusing mini-documentary about the Mexican botas exÃ³ticas with the pointy-pointy toes. In this episode of Behind the Seams we head to the dusty city of Matehuala, Mexico in search of the pointiest long-toed cowboy boots ever made. Over the past year, the botas vaqueras exÃ³ticas phenomenon has overrun the rodeo dance floors and clubs of this area and even spreading North into Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and any place where big groups of immigrant Mexicans have taken root. We made our way to Desierto Light, one of the clubs in this area…