But, although you have the high-end blue jeans, the rustic-fabulous sweater, and your trusty Barbour coat all picked out and ready to go, you realize that this combination, while perfectly appropriate, is perhaps too muted. You must complete the outfit with feetwear that are both practical and capable of expressing your inner diva.

The thigh-high boots you have been coveting, while stunning, are perhaps too pirate strumpety for this solemn occasion, in which your good humor and facility at child management are sure to be evaluated. And, yet the pull of the dramatic statement inexorably pulls you towards something….

Something…

Something…..animalistic and atumnal, something appropriate and wild…

Something, such as these Dolce & Gabbana Calf-Hair Leopard Knee Boots

Two Leopards

And the Ocelot!

So that he may see these shoes on the feets of his friends.

The Kayla from Elizabeth and James in bright multi-snake yellow-yellow-yellow.

The Lacross from Stuart Weitzman in sea patent aniline blue-blue-blue.

The Estelle Wedge from the Dolce and the Gabbana in kelly-esque, sorta-MG-racing greeny-greeny-green.

And now, this is the time on the Shoe Blogs when the Manolo dances!

Manolo says, this beautifully wonderful D&G butterfly-encrusted shoe is the marvelous example of how the designer can take the basic suede black pump and move it from the mundane to the super fantastic!

Manolo says, the Manolo’s friend Linda Grant has recently purchased these Dolce & Gabbana shoes (in black patent), which sadly, have not withstood the test of (short) time and London streets.

I mentioned last week that I had bought a pair of Dolce & Gabbana shoes. I wore them for the first time on Thursday. When I got home the leather on the soles was pitted and worn away. I was going to take them back to Harvey Nichols for a refund but first went into my excellent local shoe repairers for an opinion. They told me that the shoes were not designed to be worn before having rubber soles put on them if you were going to wear them in the street, rather than carpet [...]

To put the rubber half soles on the designer shoes, or to not put the rubber half soles on the designer shoes, that is the question.

While it is true that many cobblers and manufacturers recommend the professional attachment of the thin rubber half soles to the bottom of the designer shoes which are to be worn in the streets, to do so seems as if a) one is being defrauded by the manufacturer and b) one is destroying the integrity of the beautiful object.

The problem is that the shoes we most prize for their beauty and elegance are most often those which are exceedingly delicate, and are not designed for daily wear on the wet and muddy streets of the big city. Worse, the ultimate impracticality of the beautiful shoe is sometimes part of its charm, even if it does not seem fair that $600 shoes should display signs of wear so quickly.

So, what is the solution? Certainly, premium designers and manufacturers must only use the highest quality leather (something the Dolce and the Gabbana have clearly not done in this case, and more shame to them for it).

But even with the best and most durable leathers, the problem of design intrudes, as we wish our most precious shoes to be exquisite, light as the feather, and possessed of thin soles and delicate features, all things which run counter to our desire for durability, and the laws of nature.

And this is how it shall ever be, sturdiness and delicacy in eternal conflict, for as long as we maintain our justifiable love of natural materials.

What’s that you say, “But Manolo, it is not yet the summer time. I cannot possibly wear the white shoes before the Day of Memorializing.”

Ha! The Manolo scoffs as such fashion timidity.

Are you not the confident, super fantastic, adult person, one who is fully capable of charting her own way in the world? Indeed, you are fashionable woman, hear you roar!

Do not worry what the petty arbiters of outmoded fashion standards say, this is the beautiful shoe, one that can be worn anytime the weather warms. Remember the Manolo’s motto: If the shoe looks good, wear it!

Manolo says, this sandal from the Dolce and the Gabbana is sort of item that rides the very thin line between utterly tacky and completely stunning, and for that reason the Manolo loves it! For as we know, the true fashion is found on the border between the classic and the trashy.

Manolo says, here are the beautiful Dolce and the Gabbana golden peep toe pumps, perfect for the most festive of holiday events not involving Santa-intoxicated children and mountains of tattered wrapping paper.

Manolo says, it is Friday, and what better way to celebrate being the Disco Queen of Suburbia than with the exuberantly purple, metallic, platform peep toes from the Dolce and the Gabbana?

Manolo says, the Manolo is of two minds about the shoes. On the one of the hands, they are compelling and baroque, on the other they are slightly ridiculous.

However, despite this confusion, the Manolo does know that if the Kylie Minoque wishes to wear these shoes, she needs to pair them with something simple and elegant, something not as underwear-flashing busy-trashy.