Manolo’s Shoe Blog

Manolo says, you must go look at this posting from the Coveted. It is based on last week’s article in the New York Times about the lack of black models on the runways of this seasons New York fashion week shows.

Here is the excerpt from the Times.

Of the 101 shows and presentations posted on Style.com during the New York runway season, which ended a month ago, more than a third employed no black models, according to Women’s Wear Daily. Most of the others used just one or two. When the fashion caravan moved to London, Paris and Milan, the most influential shows — from Prada to Jil Sander to Balenciaga to Chloé and Chanel — made it appear as if someone had hung out a sign reading: No Blacks Need Apply.

The article is quite good and not the little disturbing and depressing, and thus it is well worth the reading.

What Jennine at the Coveted has done is gather together the head shots of the models from the runway shows, and in so doing has dramatically shown that the look of the moment is very pale, young, skinny, and blond. But when has it not always been thus?

Manolo says, this is one of the better fashion-based pranks the Manolo has seen.

Manolo says, the Plumcake has asked the Big Question:

What sartorial staple –the handkerchief hem, puff sleeves, whathaveyou– would YOU like to see die a quick, painful death?

For the Manolo, it has recently become the short bubble skirt.

But, you must go and add your candidate for the chopping block to the growing list.

Manolo says, the picture of the Elizabeth Taylor, from the 1970s, in the white hot pants has convinced the Manolo to say the few words about Liz and her fashion sense.

To wit: she does not seem to have much, or perhaps more properly, she seemed to lose any sense she did have right around the year 1967.

But you must judge for yourself..

Here she is young and gorgeous, dressed in the Chinese-style outfit with beautiful shoes, the very model of chic.

But this image is no indication of personal style, for when you are in your twenties and exceedingly beautiful, it matters not the least what you wear, your beauty negates your ugly clothes.

The true test of style begins in your thirties, when your looks begin to fade ever so slightly, and artifice become more important.

Work it girlfriend!

It is 1963 and Liz, 31, is perfectly accessorized with the gloves, the shoes, the purse and the most gorgeous coat. Even the hat, which would otherwise be faintly ridiculous, works here. Of the course, it does not hurt that she has also accessorized herself with Richard Burton.

It is the Manolo’s belief that this represents the high-water mark of the Elizabeth Taylor style.

And now, the trainwreck begins.

(more…)

Manolo says, the Professor Ann provides us with another memorable fashion-related quote.

“And another thing - the crotch, down where your nuts hang - is always a little too tight… so when you make them up, give me an inch that I can let out there, uh because they cut me, it’s just like riding a wire fence. These are almost, these are the best I’ve had anywhere in the United States…”

“But, uh when I gain a little weight they cut me under there. So, leave me , you never do have much of margin there. See if you can’t leave me an inch from where the zipper (burps) ends, round, under my, back to my bunghole, so I can let it out there if I need to. “

Plain-Spoken Vulgarity thy name is Mr. President!

Manolo says, this is what you get when you use too much honeysuckle nectar shampoo.

Manolo says, that the infamous metrosexual Osama bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan!

Hair implants have become commonplace [in Pakistan] in the past few years as wealthier urban males embrace cosmetic treatments that were once regarded as effeminate and even unIslamic. From facials to manicures, back waxes to eyebrow threading, a host of services are now on offer at a growing number of spas, salons and clinics catering to the male market.

“I never bothered with this before,” Humayun, 28, said after a facial at the Islamabad branch of Depilex Men, part of the biggest chain of beauty parlours in Pakistan. “I guess there’s just more pressure on men to look good these days.”

The trend may be confined to the upper and middle classes, estimated at 20-30 million people, but it illustrates how Western-style media, marketing and celebrity culture are changing Pakistani society. Five years ago most Pakistani men wore only the traditional salwar kameez - a loose-fitting cotton pyjama suit. The standard hairstyle was a short back and sides. Deodorant was considered unmanly. Moisturiser? Forget it.

[…]

However, in the big cities of Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar, where dozens of television channels are now available, men are becoming ever more conscious about their clothes, coiffures and complexions – so much so that a recent talk show on Dawn News, a new English-language television channel, asked whether Pakistan was going through a “metro-sexual” revolution.

Now all we must do is find the beautician who does Osama’s hair.

Manolo says, the Manolo’s friend Linda Grant illustrated her recent comments on the matter of appropriate clothing with the photo of the director Quentin Tarantino attending the London Fashion Week event.

Here above is the photo of Quentin Tarentino at the MOBO awards in London, the few days later. You will notice that he has at least changed his shirt, although unfortunately, to one that appears to have the stain on it.

As for poor Amy Winehouse, to say that this is the bottom of the barrel, is to suggest that this barrel has the bottom.

Manolo says, Manolo’s very good friend Linda Grant, author of the wonderful piece in the Guardian about the declining standards of dress and comportment, has returned to add more to our very vibrant discussion of this important topic.

I would like to thank those of you who responded so positively to my Guardian piece about declining standards of dress. I believe that dressing appropriately for the occasion is simply a question of good manners, as well as to give ourselves the pleasure of wearing whatever in our wardrobes is best, just as we vary our diet, adorn our homes with nice things, and enjoy a beautiful view. In the past, even the most impoverished families, had garments that they called their ‘Sunday best’ clothes which they wore for special occasions. The dumbing down of dress is in part a product of prosperity, for when a pair of jeans can cost as much as an evening gown, who knows who is expensively dressed?

The morning the article came out, a friend reminded me that at her brother’s wedding, a few years ago, one guest arrived at the reception in shorts. Now the bride and groom were theatre folk, not actors, but a writer and a director, and one sensed that this minor celeb simply felt that the happy couple were simply not important enough to get dressed up for. The true star among the guests, Hugh Laurie (of ‘House’) and his wife were dressed entirely appropriately for a July wedding, she in a hat. As someone in the comments remarked - class, you’ve got it or you haven’t.

Two people who have class are Tizzy and her husband, who, unable to celebrate their wedding anniversary at an expensive restaurant, went to an ordinary one and dressed up anyway, he in a tie and she in a cocktail dress bought on the clearance rack for $9.99. Mr and Mrs Tizzy understand the notion of a memorable occasion. I thought of them last night at a glittering event held here in London, the private view of the new exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum on the Golden Age of Couture. For standing in front of me as we listened to a speech by Ines de la Fressange, once a Chanel model, was a woman who had chosen from her entire wardrobe to wear at this event – jeans and a t-shirt. Mr and Mrs Tizzy, despite their modest income, would, I know, have nonetheless found the prefect outfits to have attended such an occasion. To be well-dressed comes not from the bank balance, but what is inside your own head.