Manolo's Shoe Blog

NOV
2012 08

The One That Got Away

When I started curating my shoe collection nearly a decade ago –when Lacroix still had his atelier, Gaultier was CD for Hermès and Muccia Prada’s current models were still fetuses instead of just practically ones– I did so with the knowledge that someday the newspaper gravy train, where I was raking in tens of dollars a month, would end. I bought carefully and within my means, bringing home a pair of new lovelies only if I could pay cash and was confident they’d be just as stylish thirty years from the moment I stood, insidey parts all a-tingle, at the…

MAR
2011 02

Repulsive Little Fashion Troll, Part 3

Manolo says, not everyone agrees that the Galliano was the genius. I can’t imagine why people think this troll is so very talented. He’s been taking old, dead, has-been ideas, exaggerating them to cartoon ridiculousness, staging them with massive amounts of corporate money, and justifying them with post-modern pseudo-intellectual claptrap. Galliano’s b.s. has stunk for some time now. Maybe his most recent troll behavior will force people to realize he’s not all that, and never was. In fact, if the old French houses had any brains, they’d dump posers like Galliano and embrace the 21st century. Instead, they remain mired…

MAR
2011 01

Repulsive Little Fashion Troll, Part 2

Manolo says, the Manolo’s friend Linda Grant has written the consideration of the scandale Galliano for today’s Guardian in which she determines it is all about the transgression. According to fashion journalist Melanie Rickey, of the Fashion Editor at Large blog and Grazia, for years the industry has pushed Galliano to greater and greater extremes: “All everyone has ever wanted from John is transgressive fashion, and to use his excessive ideas to sell nice handbags and perfumes,” she says. And once you are set on a path to break taboos, it is almost impossible to find new ideas. So how…

FEB
2011 28

Repulsive Little Fashion Troll

Manolo says, to be filed under things that make the Manolo both sad and angry. Fasion guru John Galliano was filmed having a vile racist rant during which he declared: “I love Hitler.” The British designer – an alleged Jew hater – then tells a horrified woman: “People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers, would all be f****** gassed.” His tirade was videoed by a friend of the people he was insulting – who were French and Italian, but not Jewish. Galliano, 50, was at the same Paris bar where he allegedly launched a vicious verbal attack…

JAN
2011 27

The Longing for Transcendence

Manolo says, not all fashion is impelled by our nostalgia for the mud, indeed, the best and most enduring fashion is inspired by our longings for transcendence. Transcendence. We wish to move beyond ourselves, to leave behind the mundanity of our lives and be carried aloft to the higher plane, to the place where we are more beautiful, more charming, more alluring, and where we are dressed only and forever in Christian Dior, 2011 Spring Couture Collection. There is such the thing as transcendent nostalgia, the longing for the golden past, for the specific Periclean circumstances that would allow us…

OCT
2010 19

Six Years of Shoeblogging: The Many Faces of Galliano!

N.B. In honor of the Manolo’s six years of shoeblogging, the Manolo has decided to repost this week some of his favorite pieces. Today, the Manolo has set the Wayback machine for October 5th, 2005 to see the post about our favorite funky little fashion troll, John Galliano. You are looking at me, am I not magnificent and seductive? Now I will look back… Full Seduction! At last, I am filled with disdain for you and your looking ways. Yet, is my disdain, in its own right, not also seductive?

OCT
2010 05

Hello Sailor!

Manolo says, Ahoy! Mon Funky Little Fashion Captain!

FEB
2010 08

Funky Little Fashion Troll Update!

Manolo says, oh how the Manolo wishes he were rich enough to afford his own John Galliano Lawn Jockey!

OCT
2007 02

Galliano! Pantless!

Manolo says, and he appears to be exceedingly happy to see us.

JUL
2007 03

Funky Little Torero

Manolo shouts, Olé! Is the Manolo the only person in the fashion press to recognize that Galliano’s Spanish theme for the 60th anniversary of the House of Dior is partly the homage to Manolete, the greatest torero who ever lived, and whose sensational death in the bull ring occurred in August of 1947, at exactly the moment Christain Dior was beginning his business? It is not as if Manolete is competely unknown, they are making the movie about his life, with Adrian Brody in the title role. It is perhaps the less well known fact that the Manolo, himself, was…

MAY
2007 15

XYZ, Maestro, XYZ

Manolo says, Galliano! With the poochy little belly and the Dita von Teese and the barn door open!

MAR
2007 05

The Sublime Galliano

Manolo says, Pepe, don’t forget the hedges! ** And now the Manolo must clarify the few things. Yes, the Manolo likes to gently mock the John Galliano, mostly for his theatrical dress and his outrageous runway behavior. And yet, even as the Manolo mocks, he must also acknowledge that, more than any other current designer, John Galliano has the ability to be sublime. Indeed, he is one of the few working designers whom the Manolo is willing to call the genius. This judgement, long held by the Manolo, has been further confirmed by his most recent Parisian show, the Fall…