Manolo’s Shoe Blog

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

Hey Manolo,

Just want to preface that I absolutely love your fashion blog (but I bet you hear that all the time)! But anyway, as I was perusing the latest issue of Vogue, I ran into a little article about how platforms are coming to an end ( A New Altitude p352). Is this true? Will my 5′ 3/4″ frame never again surpass the average height for women?

What are you thoughts?

Carmel

Fresh from the internets this very morning, the Manolo gives you the John Galliano’s Fall 2007 ready-to-wear collection from the Dior.

Yes, the platforms they are not completely yet out.

Although, to judge from the height and the color and the excessive strappiness we have moved from the restrained and classical period of the platforms into the final decadant period before they leave the scene for the few years. You have until perhaps the end of the year to enjoy them.

The Manolo has spoken.

Manolo says, for the Manolo nothing gets him through the middle of the cold winter week better than the pictures of the beautiful shoes, and few are more beautiful than this classic metallic peep-toe platform pump from the Christian Louboutin.

Manolo says, what better way to heat up the bitterly cold winter Monday than with the hot platform sandal from the Givenchy?

Manolo asks, how high must the platform shoes be before the pants actually fit?

Manolo says, here is the beautiful pair of the round-toed platform pumps from the Claudia Ciuti. It is somewhat formal, the sort of the shoe that could move gracefully from the day to the evening.

Manolo says, the Manolo’s always amusing friend, the Miss Meghan, she is urging the women of the New York to proudly wear the platform shoes

Ladies, listen up. It’s a new season, there is a bit of a nip in the air, and the stores are full of a delicious shoe - the platform.They are sexier, higher and more fun than ever before. But “Oh!” you gasp, “they are too high, too wobbly, too … stripper.”

Get over it, and get into it. Platforms are here to stay, and if you are an intelligent woman, which I know you are, you’ll master how to make your platforms work for you.

More than stilettos, more than the kitten heel and much, much more than the sensible ballet flat, platforms make you a tower of strength. Tall and majestic, you now can peer above everyone’s head and spot that cab two blocks away (and grab it before the non-platformed rabble below you even see it). You can pluck items off high shelves with ease, and now men must look up to you, much like the ancient Greek actors who wore elevated platforms to raise themselves up from mere mortal to godlike status.

Naturally, the Manolo he has the suggestions for the platform shoes that you should perhaps be wearing.

Here is the entertaining and stylish platform from the Missoni. The Manolo finds the kiltie detail especially witty, as it is the this, and not the rest of the shoes, which carries the fabled Missoni pattern.

And here is the square-toed platform bootie from the Stuart Weitzman that Manolo thinks is most “happening”.

The woman who would wear these to the office would not only stand out for her fashion sense, but would also tower regally above the petty distractions and inconveniences of her work day, which is exactly the point the Miss Meghan was making about the pleasures of the platforms.

Manolo says, clearly the peoples who say you cannot dance in the shoes of the high heels have never heard of the Samba!

It isn’t surprising that shoes are an obsession with the beauties who grace Brazil’s Carnival parades — they’re generally the biggest things they wear below the neck.

Dancers at Carnival, the pre-Lenten bash that starts this weekend and ends on Ash Wednesday, say the higher the better for their towering heels, worn with soaring feathered head-dresses and little else but glittery patches, strategically placed.

Patches of strategic placement and Samba!

Dancers say the platform sandals, preferably with shiny straps and buckles that snake to the knee, help prevent them from tipping over and injuring their ankles while dancing the lightning-quick gyrations of the samba.

“Platforms are safer,” said Iris Sol, 28, a dancer for the drum section of the Barroca Zona Sul samba club in Sao Paulo.

“I’ve paraded with samba troupes since I was six, but the truth is that I was dancing samba when I was born,” she said.

From the very birth, Samba!

Sandals with platform heels push body weight onto the ball of the foot, where the samba is danced. Samba platforms go as high as 17 centimetres, or 6.6 inches. Heels are extra-wide.

“Platforms make women more beautiful, elegant and taller, with better posture. They help you stick out your chest and butt a bit,” said Magaly Santos, 22, Sao Paulo’s 2005 Carnival queen.

The culture of derrieres is so big in Brazil that GNT, a popular cable channel, produced a show about them in preparation for Carnival this year. Its title? “The National Passion.”

Big butts and Samba!

A display of samba sandals by Fernando Pires, who designs for top dancers, included eye-catching designs like swirls of red, yellow and orange leather resembling flames, and black heels topped with lanyards of fake diamonds and pink beaded jewels.

Carnival dancers put almond oil on their feet to prevent skin from cracking and splitting. But they say blisters are inevitable during hours of late night dancing to thundering drums.

“It hurts. You get blisters and feel pain but you samba a lot because you don’t want to stop,” said Michele Eleuterio, 20, of the samba troupe Unidos do Peruche.

You must sacrifice for Samba!

Everybody Samba! Samba! Samba!

Manolo says, continuing the topic of the dangerous shoes, here is the picture of the famous shoes of the Vivienne Westwood that the Naomi Campbell toppled from in the 1993.

As the piece of the trivia, those shoes, they were laced onto the feet of the Naomi Campbell by the Holly Dunlap, of the Hollywould. (See the entry for the July 11, 2004)

Manolo says, the nasty wee little man that is the Kim Jong-Il, he wears the platform shoes!

Kim Jong-il has grown in stature, thanks to a pair of platform shoes that increased the Dear Leader’s height by about five inches, a leading South Korean daily reported Wednesday.

The Dong-a Ilbo published a recently obtained photograph of a smiling Kim that shows him wearing a pair of platform shoes with heels about 4-5 inches high.

Kim’s actual height is a tightly guarded secret and Pyongyang seldom releases photographs that show his shoes. Kim is estimated to stand between five and five and one-half feet tall in his stockinged feet.

Aside from devoutly hoping that the poeples of the North Korea they will soon be free to enjoy the super fantastic shoes, all the Manolo he can say to point out the ridiculousness of this petty person is: Tequila!