Manolo’s Shoe Blog

Manolo says, here are the few links which may perhaps amuse…

“Maybe I lost money by not doing them when they were in fashion this time. But I don’t care. I did them in the 70s. That was enough for me. Never again! I don’t like them!”

It’s a bit drafty

Famous Footwear Trends

Celeb Trend: Gold Lame

Manolo says, the Manolo has been predicting the end of the ultra-extreme towering heels for many months now, and at last it has come to pass, as announced by Leon Andre Talley himself.

Designers with an obsession for towering torture chambers, often poorly designed for the well-being of the foot, must get a reality check. I, for one, am over the mania for the high, high heel. Too many career women look like a herd of fashion beasts, aping one another in impractical shoes . . . Can’t anyone take a cue from First Lady Michelle Obama, in the elegant low-heeled shoes she always wears? A flat would be nice.

Of the course, the reason that the First Lady wears the flats has less to do with the comfort and more to do with her amazonian stature.

Be that as it may, the Manolo agrees that the heels had gone beyond what was both advisable and attractive. It was time for the predictable reaction, the return to more practical shoes.

Thus, the old hotness.

Ridiculous shoes in which you cannot walk.

Versus, the new hotness.

The Low Heels of High Spark Girls.

Manolo says, in this week’s fashion news, the return of the bicycle shorts and the drop-crotch pants.

Drop-crotch pants and bicycle shorts?

This can only mean one thing…

Hammertime!

Manolo says, the Manolo’s good internet friend, and super fantastic intelligent theorist of fashion and trends, Virginia Postrel, has started the new blog, Deep Glamour, which, “explores the magic of glamour in its many manifestations, from movies, fashion, and advertising to real estate, politics, and sports.”

Already, the Manolo can see that this will be one of his daily readings. Please go there now and see what all of the fuss is about.

Manolo says, as the Manolo predicted earlier this year, the pointy toed shoe has returned!

Round-toes have pretty much ruled the shoe world for the past decade, with a tenacity that belies their innocently girlish appearance.

But a decade is a century in fashion years (like dog years, but longer and potentially more fatal if underestimated) so it was inevitable that the point should return at some point. And lo, it has come to pass.

At Balenciaga – pretty much the bellwether for trends that the high street masses will be adopting – the gladiator sandals it knocked out last season have been replaced for autumn/ winter by shoes so pointy they will probably double as weapons for the requisite eastern European villainess in the next Bond film.

Even Marc Jacobs, who is surely Coco Chanel’s successor in his tireless promotion of the sweet and girly look, has pushed aside his beloved mouse pumps (literally, ballet pumps with little beaded eyes and whiskers fixed on the tip) for decidedly more grown-up and less rodenty pointier toes, at both his own eponymous label and in the current collection for Louis Vuitton. Similarly, the Lanvin woman seems to have matured from the pretty, round-toed mademoiselle she was just a few seasons ago to a full-on vamp, with black, sharp-toed teetering heels. “Round toes are on their way out and pointy toes are marching back into our wardrobes!” one fashion magazine gleefully announced this month.

And to celebrate the changing of the fashion guard, the Manolo recommends to you this handsome, comfortable, and reasonably priced, pointy-toed demi-d’orsay pump, the Cherry Hill from the Kenneth Cole New York.

Many thanks to the Manolo’s friend Linda Grant, who keeps the Manolo abreast of the English media

Manolo says, the Manolo’s indispensable internet friend Lesley of the Fashion Tribes has posted her thoughts on the most intriguing panel discussion at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Here is the excerpt.

In his opinion, since no one in the audience – comprised mostly of students – was dressed in a way that remotely resembled a fashion editorial, magazines were obviously out-of-touch and irrelevant. Galanos heartily concurred, and according to his extremely narrow-minded and dated definition of what can be considered “fashion,” anything fantastic but unwearable that walks down a runway is to be considered an exercise in self-discovery rather than fashion. Michael Fink noted that from his perspective as a retailer, he needs to focus on what sells. Sadly, there were neither actual women nor members of the press invited to participate, despite being the market in question and the apparent cause of the demise of modern fashion.

The fact is, in this age of too many trends, designers, and choices, the fashion press is the very reason why fashion remains vibrant and interesting to women.

Editors and fashion writers address this overload of information by sifting, editing, and curating what’s worth putting in your closet. [...]

In addition, “unwearable” clothing and editorial spreads feed into the fantasy element of fashion: yes, it’s a business, but it’s one founded upon creativity, both of the designer, and of the wearer as a means of their self expression. “Crazy” clothes fuel people’s imagination, spark ideas, and, ultimately, help keep fashion interesting, aspirational, and in demand.

This point is exactly correct, that yes, much of that which is sent down the runway is unwearable by anyone other than the 14-year-old Belorussian anorexics, but the process of presenting such fantasy clothes does much to shape and reshape our perceptions of what is beautiful.

Query: Are the designers out of touch because they present clothing that cannot be worn by ordinary women?

Answer: In truth this question cannot be answered without specific context; without making reference to both the specific designer and the specific runway show. And even then out-of-touchness is not absolute; there are degrees, and thus the most obtuse show usually contains elements which are worthy of our attention, just as the most mundane may miss that quality which makes it relevant to the current cultural moment.

Query: Are the fashion magazines out of touch because they feature clothing that cannot be worn by ordinary women?

Answer: No. The fashion magazines have the dual mandate, to please readers and to please advertisers. And while there is some tension between these two goals, the Manolo suspects that this tension is less than many peoples imagine.

Query: Why do fashion magazine show us gangly, Ukrainian middle-schoolers in Dior couture?

Query: Why do car magazines spend enormous amounts of time reporting on test drives and specifications of exceedingly expensive and exotic super cars?

Answer: For the same reason, because we are entertained and motivated by such images. And because we aspire to have beautiful things (clothes, cars, homes, art) that reflect what we perceive as our inner persons. The magazines do not create this desire–as it is inherent in all of us–instead they merely seek to shape and direct our desires towards that which its editors value and advertisers wish us to acquire.

Query: Is the Manolo out of touch because he asks his readers to admire beautiful but perhaps unwearable shoes?

Answer: No. The goal of the Manolo at his humble shoe blog is to entertain and to educate, to share with his readers that which the Manolo loves the most, beautiful shoes.

Manolo says, above you see the handsome dark navy and cream, mary jane pump from the Marc by Marc Jacobs.

And yes, the Manolo has already announced that 2008 will be the “Year of Color“, but as is so often the case, there is the counter trend to the main trend, running in opposition. So, for the example, the vertiginous platform heels of the last spring were countered by the Torey Burch ballet flats.

This year the counter trend to the colorful shoes are the shoes which combine white with black (or navy and cream, or other variations).

Here are the other example, the Stuart Weitzman peep-toe pumps.

Previously, Shoe Trends 2008, Part 1, Shoe Trends 2008, Part 2.

Manolo says, over the next few days, the Manolo will be giving his forecast for the coming years shoe trends.

This next trend, which has been developing over the past year, has now fully arrived, and it is the brightly colored shoes. Currently we are seeing shoes which are saturated with color, not the primary color, but rich variations in the purples, the oranges, the yellows, the greens, the blues, and the reds.

In fact, the Manolo goes so far as to call this the “Year of Color”

This trend to color is visible at all levels of the market. Look, here are affordable shoes from Enzo Angliolini in bright orange and yellow.

And in the more expensive prices, here is deep purple satin slide from Ralph Lauren.

Yellow-ish platform shoes from Bruno Frisoni.

Two varieties of red from the Christian Louboutin.

So, add some colors to your feets this year.

P.S. Shoe Trends for 2008, Part One.

Manolo says, over the next few days the Manolo will be sharing with you what he thinks are the shoe trends for the New Year.

Here is the new shoe, the Cary from Donald Pliner, which represents one of the coming trends.

Yes, it is the return of the pointy toed pumps. Although, they never completely went away, pointy toed shoes have been in eclipse for the past three years. But you may now look for them to begin to creep back onto the runways in the coming months.