Manolo’s Shoe Blog

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

Dear Manolo,

I am a young plant ecologist. I generally trudge around the forest in hiking boots whose original appearance is well disguised by a thick layer of mud. But soon I’ll be presenting at several scientific meetings. I am, of course, terrifically nervous and very anxious to make a good impression on future colleagues. If I am particularly impressive, I may be paid for my work (a novel idea after being an undergraduate for so long). I am having quite a lot of trouble choosing a shoe. You see, I don’t quite fit into a gender. I think “soft butch” describes me well. So what shoes should I choose to wear with my lovely, but almost masculine black suit?

Sincerely,

Suz

The Manolo loves the ungendered peoples of indeterminate gendering, with their girls-will-be-boys-will-be-huh? aesthetic. So wonderfully confusing!

And this story of the Manolo’s friend, it is marvelous. Indeed, it sounds like the Hollywood Indie Comedy, with the ambiguously gendered person living in the Edenic wilderness, with the plants and the hiking boots, who is forced by circumstances to emerge from this sanctuary to save the world from ecological disaster and/or deliver the academic paper.

But first, s/he needs suitable shoes for hir feets!

Luckily, the recent fashion trends, in which many of the best designers have shown masculine shoes for the women, means that there are many handsome shoes suitable for persons of ambiguity.

Behold, the beautifully constructed cap-toe oxford from Gravati!. Yes, it is somewhat costly, but this is the sort of shoe you will have your entire life.

Of the course, living in the forest generally does not pay well (just ask the chipmunks and the dryads), so perhaps the Manolos’ friend would require something slightly less costly, like this simple, handsome shoe, the Cloak from Franco Sarto.

Manolo says, lately the Manolo has been getting many letters such as this one.

Dear Manolo,

I love your blog, and the beautiful shoes you show on it, but most often they’re well beyond my poor working girl means. Could you please recommend some shoes that are affordable but still stylish?

Much love,

Kim.

It is true, the Manolo most frequently chooses costly, perhaps even outrageous priced shoes, but this because the Manolo believes that quality and style and workmanship trump all other considerations.

The best shoes are designed by geniuses, and manufactured by true craftsmen from the first-rate materials, and because of this they command the proportionally high price. But, likewise, they give proportionally more pleasure to the wearer.

Nothing matches the feeling one has when wearing beautiful and beautifully made shoes. One walks taller and straighter in such shoes, which is why the Manolo always recommends saving to buy the super fantastic shoes.

However, at the same of the time the Manolo also knows what it is like to be poor, so poor that you must fashion your own super fantastic shoes out of the discarded typewriter parts you have found in the abandoned warehouse where you hide at night from the roving bands of street thugs, whom you have frequently insulted with rude gestures.

And so the Manolo often recommends the shoes of the Franco Sarto as being the suitable stopgap while one saves up for the more substantial feetwear investment.

Look! Here are two pairs the Manolo would recommend to his poor girl friends.

Here is the Fleet from Franco Sarto, with the sleek lines and the remarkable and attractive deep red color.

This boot is called the Fare, and it has the similarly streamlined lines as the red shoe above. It is elegant and modern in the best ways.

The shoes of the Franco Sarto can be quite attractive and the quality is not excessively awful, thus they are perfect for the poor girl who wishes to do better.

Manolo says, here is the Manolo’s latest column for the Express of the Washington Post.

Dear Manolo,

I must soon sit for my oral examinations to determine if I will receive my masters degree and am permitted to begin my doctoral degree. So, as you can see, I need serious shoe help.

Melissa

Manolo says, It would have helped if the Melissa had mentioned her course of study, as the shoes one would use to impress the electrical engineers are very different from the shoes needed to sooth the professors of Marxist theology.

Still, the clothing should be sober and professional, something that recognizes and honors the importance this rite of passage.

Also, this is one of the few cases where the Manolo would tell his friend not to wear the shoes that are so super fantastic as to make her examiners jealous, for few things can become more dangerously petty than the professor who is jealous of the graduate student. In such cases they are like the cornered ferrets.

Better to appear just super fantastic enough to make them feel that you are worthy of the high honors they are bound to give you.

Here is the Helix from the Franco Sarto, the pretty yet serious mid-heel pump with the tiny bit of the peeping toe and the reasonable graduate-student price.

Manolo says, it is almost Spring, and as is usual the change of the seasons has brought the Manolo many emails from his poor girl internet friends asking the Manolo to help them find the affordable shoes.

In such cases the Manolo always gives the same response, which is to tell the poor girl to save her moneys so that she might be able to purchase the truly super fantastic spring shoes. Do not forget that the beautiful and well-made shoes make the wearer stand taller, walk with more confidence, and enjoy life more fully.

But, at the same time, the Manolo also knows what it is like to be poor, so poor that you must construct your own super fantastic spring shoes out of crocus petals and crushed robins’ eggs. And so he offers here the few spring selections which can be worn by the poor girl until she can afford better.

Here is the low wedge peep toe from the Franco Sarto in the “pewter lizard” that the Manolo finds both striking and wearable.

This attractive sandal from th O Oscar the Manolo shows you here in the blue color which is popular this year. Would these not herald the coming of spring?

Here is another handsome shoes from the O Oscar by the Oscar de la Renta, the wedge heel sandal with the brown strappiness.

Any of these would get the poor girl through the season and into the summer when she will have saved enough of the moneys to afford better.

Manolo says, here is the Manolo’s latest column for the Express of the Washington Post.

Dear Manolo,

I’m a poor girl starting at the bottom of the corporate ladder, and I need something that is both cheerful and not terribly expensive to wear to work this spring.

Laura

Manolo says, ah the bottom of the corporate ladder. How the Manolo remembers those long ago days in his first job, starting on the lowest rung as the Second Assistant Shoeshine Boy in the shoe shop of the Mercurio Albornoz y Bahamonde.

Yes, the pay was not much—the few fistfuls of pesetas and all the lunchroom leftovers he could steal—but the opportunity for advancement was unlimited.

And through hard work and dedication and the long and arduous hours of polishing the Manolo eventually managed to climb the ladder of success, all the way up to the exalted position of Associate Shoeshine Boy in Charge of Laces! He even had his own corner box on which he could squat while he labored!

Ayyyyyy! Those were heady days of success for the young Manolo.

But, then, sadly, the shoe shining was outsourced to street urchins and the Manolo found himself having to start all over again at the ripe age of thirteen. But such is corporate life.

Here is the Cargo from the Franco Sarto, the cute and breezy wedge heel shoe that would enliven the spring day of corporate climbing.

Manolo says, here is the Manolo’s latest column for the Express of the Washington Post.

Dear Manolo,

I’m starting a new job in January, but once again, my generosity has outdone my commonsense and I’ve spent all of my money on Christmas gifts. Please help me find some affordable work shoes.

Cindy

Manolo says, as always the Manolo gives the same counsel, to not buy the cheap shoes of pain and suffering and the fake leather, but to save your moneys and buy the high quality shoes of comfort and stylishness. Beautiful shoes will make you stand straighter and feel more confident, the exact qualities desired by the employers.

Yet, how well the Manolo knows what it is like to have the bank ruptured after the spending spree of generosity, and thus be the poor person who is forced to fashion his own super fantastic employment shoes out of the cardboard wrapping paper tubes and the crumpled credit card receipts.

Thus the Manolo would commend to his friend the shoes of the Franco Sarto as being among the most stylish of the affordable shoes, shoes that will do the job until sufficient capital is accumulated for the truly wonderful feetwear.

Look here is the Impala by Franco Sarto, the handsome professional pump with the understated feminine detail.

Manolo says, the latest column of the Manolo it is available at the website of the Express of the Washington Post. Today’s topic it is the shoes for the poor librarian.

Dear Manolo,

I work in a library, so flats or small heels are the best. The one problem is that I have super fantastic shoe aspirations on a flip-flop budget. While I am saving up, are there any minorly fantastic shoes for me?

Eileen

Manolo says, the librarians they are so smart, knowing that even if you are the poor girl you must save the moneys so that you can purchase the most super fantastic shoes.

Of the course, even while they are saving the moneys the librarians they must have the shoes, as they cannot go barefeeted. No one wishes to see the toes while searching the stacks. It is distracting.

Yes, they could perhaps construct their own super fantastic shoes out of the pieces of the old card catalogs and the library paste, although, unless the librarians are as gifted as the Manolo in the fine art of improvisational cobbling the results they may not be pleasing.

This it is why the Manolo he would recommend for the fall, the pair of the low heeled boots from the Franco Sarto as being the shoes that are both attractive and attractively priced. Would they not look good with the right skirt, something for that moment when the horn-rimmed glasses are removed and the hair is undone?

Manolo says, as is often the case, the email box of the Manolo it has been overflowing with the emails from the Manolo’s many internet friends asking the Manolo to help them find the affordable shoes.

“Please,” the internet friends of the Manolo say, “we are the poor working girls who must slave away in the hot office, hiding under the pasted-on smiles our simmering envy of the stylish women who have achieved greater success. Please help us, Manolo, we need the beautiful shoes to ease our pain, but we have no moneys. ”

As always, the reply of the Manolo it is the same, that the poor working girl she must save her moneys so that she may purchase the super fantastic shoes. Also, she should strive to not feel the envy of the successful woman; for all that we know she may suffer from her own disappointments and neuroses.

In the stead it is better to focus on obtaining the beautiful shoes, for owning all of the bargain priced feetwear in the world cannot replicate the feeling one gets when wearing the single pair of the truly refined shoes. It is sublime, similar to the religious experience, only for the feets.

At the same of the time, the Manolo he knows what it is like to be poor in the summer, so poor that you must fashion your own summery white buck shoes out of the discarded ice cream wrappers, cotton candy cones, and popsicle sticks that have fallen onto the sand beneath the cracks in the boardwalk.

And so the Manolo he will help his internet friends by recommending some of the summery light-colored shoes of the Franco Sarto, shoes which sell for under $100 of the American dollars.

As we know the Manolo he has this season gone mad for the wedge heels, and this shoe, the Muro, it has the striking combination of the dark wedge and the white straps that the Manolo finds especially attractive.

Here is another of the wedges, the Dimple, with the similar dark-below, light-on-the-top color combinations.

Finally, here is the oddly named Orator, which is shown here in the white with the blue accents, and in the unusual but very attractive color known as the celedon, the light green. Is it not limitedly perfect in its own inexpensive way?

Manolo say, the most recent column of the Manolo for the Express of the Washington Post it is now available for the downloading.

Again with the wedges!

Dear Manolo,

I’ve been visiting your blog this week and I’ve noticed that you’ve been featuring lots of beautiful, but very expensive wedges. Can you recommend something for the impoverished working girl?

Erika

Manolo says, as the readers of the Manolo’s humble shoe blog know the Manolo has been completely entranced by the most fabulous wedges of this season, and indeed if the super fantastic girl she has $400 of the American dollars to spend the possibilities they are endless.

Sadly, however, not all of the Manolo’s readers are so flush, and with them the Manolo cannot but sympathize, for the Manolo, he knows what it is like to be poor, so poor that you must fashion your own super fantastic glittery wedge-heeled shoes out of the shards of disco balls and broken dreams you have recovered from the dumpster behind the Studio 54.

And so the Manolo has found for his many reader friends this beautiful high-heel wedge from the Franco Sarto selling for under $100 of the American dollars. He is especially fond of the pewter metallic finish, although it is also available in the bronze, the black, and something called the “tobacco waxy calf”.

Here, as the bonus for the readers for the Manolo’s blog, is another attractive and affordable wedge from the Franco Sarto.