Manolo says, it is the well known fact that the Manolo is the ardent reader, someone who takes great pleasure in the well-written words. And so, allow the Manolo to suggest to you the few books that you might consider giving as the gifts to the peoples on your List of Xmas.

1)

In April, when The Thoughtful Dresser by the Manolo’s friend Linda Grant was released in America, the Manolo said the following…

Make no mistake, if, like the Manolo, you are the reasonably intelligent person who likes the clothes, and the shoes, and thinking about why people wear what they wear, you will adore this book.

And so, for the clothing-obsessed persons of some intellect on your shopping list, you could do no better than to present them with the copy of this marvelous little book.

2)

Perhaps the funniest book the Manolo has read in the past year is How I Became a Famous Novelist. It is ridiculous in the most incredibly delightful way, certain to make anyone who reads it giddy with pleasure.

3)

Johnathan Franzen’s Freedom is so 2007. If you want to read about the American life as it is lived in the year 2010, then you must read The Financial Lives of the Poets. Sure to be dated in late 2011, this is the remarkably jolly and well-written account of our current deplorable condition.

4)

For the Manolo, as for thinking peoples everywhere, the best thing to come out of the Project Runway will forever be the Tim Gunn. His fashion advice has always been classically stodgy but sound, however, it is as the life and deportment coach where he truly shines. Thus, for the person in need of the little help, the Manolo suggests, Gunn’s Golden Rules.

5)

For the most atavistic of manly men chefs who harbor the openly poetic side, allow the Manolo to recommend the Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way, from the hand of the magnificent Francis Mallmann.

6)

And for the more cerebrally inclined and less poetic chefs of your acuaintance, you should perhaps consider the Cooking For Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food, as being the sort of gift book that will provide much entertainment.

7)

With exactly the right amount of informative historical text and beautiful photos Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700 – 1915 would be the perfect thing to give to the would-be fashion designerish teen.

8)

Finally, the new book of shoe pictures from the Maestro Manolo Blahnik…what more needs be said?

Manolo says, one of the Manolo’s internet friends has asked him the question.

Dear Manolo,

I was lucky enough to have scored these beautiful, gray Manolo Blahnik Nesta fur ankle boots on sale for 40% off.

The problem is I’m not sure what to do with them. They’re so fabulous but in this peculiar retro kind of way that does not mesh with my usual sense of style. I’m more of an edgy, minimalist kind of girl; think skinny jeans, motorcycle boots, thigh high boots, lots of black, you get the idea.

These boots are so not part of my usual repertoire, but they captured my heart and now I am at a complete loss. The salesperson suggested a fur scarf or fur-trimmed something or other, but I’m afraid that would make me look like the White Witch from the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Is this the kind of footwear that can only be worn while sitting on a sleigh surrounded by elf minions? Say it ain’t so, because I live in Seattle where sleighs and elves are in short supply. Would you be so kind as to suggest a few possible outfits? Casual and dressy?

Thank you so much for all your awesomeness! You never fail to amuse and tempt me with your humor and delicious shoe selections. Love you!

Hien

For the Manolo, the biggest news in this note is that the Nordstroms now carries the shoes of the Maestro!

Soon, the Capital of Grunge shall become the Locus of Super Fantastic!

And this letter, it is proof of the civilizing qualities of the Manolo Blahnik shoes. Before this, our internet friend was content to wear the dour black, like the punk rock Spanish grandee.

But now she wishes to be… super fantastic!

Actually, the Manolo thinks that his friends fashion instincts, although perhaps overly muted, are essentially sound, especially as this magnificent shoe is one that will work with almost anything she might wear: tights, rocker-girl jeans, the shorty punkish skirt, with the black cashmere sweater

The one thing the Manolo would recommend, however, is the addition of the short flair coat, because these are the shoes for wearing when… Baby. It’s. Cold. Outside.

Perhaps something like this Diane von Furstenburg Lady Coat

But, regardless, these are indeed the most super fantastic booties!

Manolo says, what more needs to be said? It is the brand new book of drawings from our Maestro Manolo Blahnik, with commentary by Suzy Menkes.

Manolo says, Happy Birthday to the Maestro Manolo Blahnik, whose miraculous birth occurred this day, in 1942.

Manolo says, we are not worthy!

Rumplemeyers, plumcake, bibs, and the spirited animadversion on the platform shoe; what more could we, the humble devotees of the Maestro Manolo Blahnik, wish in the two minute interview?

Via the blog of the 5th at 58th, the blog of Bergdorf Goodman department store. And, while you are visiting their site, view the Fall Bergdorf Goodman Shoe Book, it is exquisite.

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.

This post, in which the Manolo responds to the inquiry from one of his dearest internet friends, first appeared on March 13th, 2007

Manolo says, one of the Manolo’s dear internet friends has asked him the question.

Querido Manolo,

I have just received an invitation to present a paper in Helsinki this summer at a conference on the laws of war. This means that I shall be the only twenty-something-year-old female in a hall full of big, gruff, snarly, manlymen. Since genetic constitution and chromosomal make-up render it impossible for me to project an image of gruff, snarly, girlitude, I prefer to present myself as both a lover and a fighter. Could you please recommend a pair of show-stopping shoes that would convey this image?

Further considerations:
(1) Price and heel altitude are distant seconds to superfantasticness.
(2) I think it’s time for me to buy my first Manolos.

If you decide to post this query, could you please leave my name out? Muchisimas gracias!

With warmest wishes from frosty NYC,

Manolo says, mucho-macho, snarly, gruffy-huffy, law-of-war manly men? In Finland?

Oy, to the Manolo this does not sound like fun. Indeed, it sounds as if the Manolo’s nameless friend is riding out to the annual Mongol Golden Horde company picnic, featuring all the roast badger and curdled mares’ milk you can eat, followed by the spirited game of “Kick the Head”.

In this case, she should do as the Manolo does when forced to participate in the strange native rites, behave as if you were the eccentric 19th century British explorer.

Be polite, be friendly, be sympathetic, but make it clear to the cannibalistic savages, through your dress and your comportment, that you represent the superior culture, one which offers these benighted souls the benefits of indoor plumbing and the afternoon tea.

Thus, when the lawyers of war offer you the drink of honeyed mead in the polished skull of their slain-in-battle senior partner, you must sip politely, and smilingly promise them, in your best Queen’s English, that you will return soon with the Royal Navy gunboat and destroy their God-forsaken way of life.

Of the course, in the meantime, the Manolo’s friend must dress in the manner that shows them that she is the powerful and important person in her own culture, one who must not be trifled with (or, at the least, one who must not be cut up and tossed into the bubbling cauldron of lunch.)

What better way to do this than with the aggressively beautiful shoes?

Here are two classic pairs of the Maestro Manolo Blahnik’s shoes that one should not live without.

Either in the mid-heel or the high-heel, in the dark brown or the black, these shoes are serious enough for the everyday work, and yet, kick-ass enough to quell the native insurrection.

If one truly wishes to leave the savages speachless, however, then the Manolo suggests these slightly less practical pumps from the Christian Louboutain.

Metallic python?

Expected reaction: “Ooooooh, shiny! Lawyer Grog think pretty lady in glittery snake shoes have mighty mojo. Must listen attentively to presentation.”

Manolo says, what better way to celebrate this auspicious day than with beautiful shoes from our patron saint, the Maestro di Tutti Maestri, Manolo Blahnik?

Subtle, elegant, unusual, whimsical, beautiful, all the things we should strive for in our daily lives.

Manolo says, the Manolo will allow the Keats to speak for him…

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too —

And what could be more lyrically beautiful than autumnal suede pumps from the Maestro Manolo Blahnik?

Manolo says, New York Fashion Week, it has returned! And even the better, so has the Maestro Manolo Blahnik’s famous Timberland Bootie.

But, it is only for the brief time, beginning tomorrow during the Fashion’s Night Out, and only at the New York store.

Limited-edition Manolo Blahnik Timberland Bootie ($1,050) is hitting the shelves and will be available through Fashion Week (or until sold out). Exclusively at Manolo Blahnik, 31 West 54th Street

It is iconic!

Manolo says, the Manolo’s friends at the Collector’s Weekly (which earlier this year published the remarkable interview with the shoe collector John Walford) have returned with the excellent interview with Elizabeth Semmelhack, one of the curators at the magnificent Bata Shoe Museum and author of the book Heights of Fashion: A History of the Elevated Shoe.

There is much in this interview to both ponder and enjoy, but below are two intriguing excerpts.

Collectors Weekly: How did a pair of Manolos or Louboutins become star accessories?

Semmelhack: I don’t think that it was the designers themselves who did it as much as the culture. Clearly their shoes are lovely, but over the course of the 20th century, you have a great loss of accessories in women’s wear. I like to use the hat as an example of that. If you think about watching “I Love Lucy” on TV, so often she’s walking by a hat shop and she stops to purchase a hat. Now she’s got to hide it from Ricky because God forbid he sees it. It’s the hat that she must have, the hat, the hat, the hat. Along the same lines, we had white gloves and we had pearls and we had other similar ways of expressing status.

With the loss of iconic accessories like those, shoes carry a greater burden of meaning. We now require shoes to really, as someone said, punctuate our fashionable outfit or unfashionable outfit, whatever we’re doing. They are increasingly a way of turning a generic outfit around, and I think that’s one of the reasons why shoes have become such a focal point of culture. We can read a lot into them.

But today, where fashion has been so democratized, you can have two women of wildly different socioeconomic standings or wildly different social constructs of themselves going into the same, say, Gap store and buying the exact same pair of jeans. One might wear her jeans with a pair of Manolo Blahniks, making one statement, while the other woman puts on a pair of Keds to go watch her kids play soccer, and she makes a different statement.

The loss of the hat as the fashion accessory elevates the shoes to the place of prominence? The theory is so simple and elegant, it cannot but be true.

Here is the second excerpt, this time on the topic of clothing for the men.
(more…)

Manolo says, it is the Earth Day, so you should be celebrating Gaia by wearing beautiful green shoes.

…such as these ecologically correct Vine Ankle Wrap Sandals from our Maestro Manolo Blahnik.

With these on your feets, you would be the very image of beautiful Flora, Roman goddess of nature. And we would sing to you in the honorific words of Ovid: Mater, ades, florum, ludis celebranda iocosis!.. Mother of Flowers, come closer, so that we may honor you with joyful games!

Manolo says, as the gentle reminder, Manolo the Shoeblogger is not the Maestro Manolo Blahnik, and to help you understand the difference, the humble shoeblogger has prepared the Venn diagram.

fig. 1

So, as you may clearly see, Manolo the Shoeblogger is not Manolo Blahnik.

Indeed, Manolo Blahnik agrees that he is not Manolo the Shoeblogger...

Manolo the Shoeblogger? Sorry, not me. But it’s very funny, isn’t it? Hilarious!

Let us hope this ends any confusion.