What the Manolo Is…

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

Eagerly awaiting the publication of…

Reading…

Listening to…

Watching…

The Manolo has decided that his literary education has the Penelope Fitzgerald shaped hole, which he will now attempt to fill by reading several of her novels in the quick succession.

Moonstone

Manolo says, at the Manolo Jewelry, our friend La Petite Acadienne discusses the importance of the moonstone.

In India, moonstone is regarded as a sacred stone. It is believed to bring good fortune. And really, couldn’t we all use more good fortune in 2011?

JAN
2011
03

Matthäus Schwarz, Renaisance Sartorialist

Manolo says, thanks to the interesting article about the birth of European “fashion” at the History Today, the Manolo has been introduced to the chief accountant to the family Fugger, Matthäus Schwarz, who was apparently the sort of Renaissance Sartorialist.

Matthäus Schwarz by Hans Maler zu Schwaz

Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers / And they've been known to pick a song or two

In July 1526 Matthäus Schwarz, a 29-year-old chief accountant for the mighty Fugger family of merchants from Augsburg, commissioned a naked image of himself as fashionably slim and precisely noted his waist measurements. He worried about gaining weight, which to him signalled ageing and diminished attractiveness. Over the course of his life, from his twenties to his old age, Schwarz commissioned 135 watercolour paintings showing his dressed self, which he eventually compiled into a remarkable album, the Klaidungsbüchlein (Book of Clothes), which is housed today in a small museum in Brunswick. From the many fascinating details the album reveals we know that, while he was courting women, Schwarz carried heart-shaped leather bags in green, the colour of hope.

This mania for the clothing reaches its peak at the Imperial Diet in Augsberg.

Matthäus Schwarz had three expensive outfits tailored for himself to please Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria, whom he met twice during the Imperial Diet of Augsburg of 1530, presided over by the archduke and his brother, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. […] Schwarz, who had slimmed in advance and had grown a beard like Ferdinand himself, used fashion to produce an image of himself which made the archduke like and trust him. In 1541 Schwarz himself received a particularly special reward from the emperor, whom he had also had a chance to impress in person; he was ennobled.

Ayyy! Matthäus Schwarz dieted for the Diet!

But, thanks to the age and the marriage, things did not end well for our foppish friend…

(more…)

JAN
2011
03

Alan Rickman’s Voice Brings All the Girls to the Yard

Manolo says, firstly, how is it possible that the Manolo has never heard of this movie before?

Secondly, this must be counted among the greatest of the Alan-Rickman-based cinematic moments ever.

Thirdly, that voice, it is like the melted butter poured into the brandy snifter filled with warm lobster flesh, while Chuck Mangione plays the Mozart softly in the background.

JAN
2011
03

Prada Red Leather Driving Loafers For the Monday

Manolo says, it is Monday and you are back at your desk, and already you have broken the first of your twenty dozen resolutions of the new year’s.

Last week, as you were enjoying the mug of brandy egg nog and gobbling the final bit of your Great Aunt Jemminy Cricket’s (née Jeanette Crick) most delicious and rum-intensive fruitcake, when you decided to write out the list of resolutions for the New Year.

By the time you were finished, following the third helping of the nog, your list had grown to nearly 200 items, and included such things as “write thank you notes that day,” and “a sock cannot go into a drawer until its match has been found.”

Strangely, you made it through January the 1st and the 2nd with your list intact, all the many resolutions unviolated.

But then, this morning, when you came into the office, you found that your bosses had used the last week to draw up their own list of resolutions, which included such things as “reorganize seating chart in cubicle farm,” and “require triplicate memos on TPS reports.” And, thus, within the first hour, you found your desk between to that of B.O. Bob (the nice man with the glandular problem) and the Chatty Cathy, the nattering nitwit niece of the company founder, to whom you must be polite because it is likely that she will eventually be promoted to the head of your division.

And then, just before the lunch, the second round of memos were delivered from the bosses, detailing changes in office procedure and individual work responsibilities.

Seconds later, you had violated your personal resolutions numbers 47 to 53, 72, 87, and 103, having to do principally with the taking of the Lord’s name in vain, the use of certain unpleasant words, the promise to think more kindly of various individuals, and to not email complaints about work to your husband, or post them to your facebook page.

Of the course, the two most important resolutions are still intact: the one to pay more attention to the humble blog of the Manolo, and the one to leave more comments on the beautiful shoes and funny pictures he shows you.

Look! Happy and practical patent leatherdriving moccasins from Prada!

Prada Red Patent Leather Driving Moccasin

The perfect sort of kicks to make the 2011 the happy and fun new year.

The Gifts of Mr. Henry

Manolo says, they keep on giving….

In this Western ski village where the skies are not cloudy all day (sometimes there is snow, too), Mr. Henry has been having fun teasing his adored consort each time the ski-bum waiter addresses her as “ma’am.”

But today the little dude-boy addressed Mr. Henry as “sir” – not once, but three times. Cheek!

JAN
2011
01

Happy Shoe Year!!!

Happy Shoe Year!

Manolo shouts,

Happy Shoe Year!!!!