Magic Foot-Ensmallening Shoes from Gucci

I am not going to pretend I spend a lot of time worrying whether my feet look big.

I didn’t especially worry about it before, and now that I live in Mexico where the directions to my remote beach cottage involve, “turn left on the dirt road by the big pile of rocks onto the trail that looks like you could probably drive across it and turn right just before you hit sand. If you drive into a dolphin or other surprised marine creature, you’ve gone too far” whether my big feet do, in fact, look big usually gets pushed into the the “Bigger fish to fry” cavity of my sunbleached brain.

That being said, I do notice when a shoe makes my size 41’s look especially petite.

Enter the Viola from Gucci.

A few years ago during one especially torridly hot summer, I found a pair of bottle green silk velvet sandals in just this shape on practically obscene markdown at The Happiest Place on Earth, a.k.a, Neiman Marcus Last Call.

I’m pretty sure they’re Sergio Rossi and not Gucci –I’d check but they’re languishing somewhere in a storage facility stateside– but the moment I strapped them on, they made my Bob Terwilligers look like Tinkerbell toes.

They’re a festive party shoe, giving a bit of visual weight to anchor a cocktail dress without being full-on editorial.

Oh, and if you’re ever looking for a way to perk up your velvet shoes, set them in the steamiest part of your bathroom as you take a hot shower. Then rough up the nap with a shoebrush (an old toothbrush works too), let them cool a bit and brush the nap back into place.

 

 

 

JUL
2012
24

Sergio Rossi Red Tahiti Sandal for the Blocked Writer

Manolo says, one of the Manolo’s internet friends, the Lisa, has sent the Manolo the desperate missive.

Manolo!! Help me! I am the professor currently writing a book about ethics. I live in the mouldering old house in the historic district, with the beautiful crown mouldings of This Old Housedom. But today starts the workmen! As the Manolo would say “Ayyyyyyyyyy”. They are cutting holes in walls, stomping in and out. Go to campus and deal with yucky colleagues? In summer? Or listen to my lovely little house being destroyed? I am going CRAAAAAAZY. Please suggest some ultra-super fantasy shoes for daydreaming soon. Love your blog and your philosophy, Lisa.

Ayyyy! The Manolo knows exactly how frustrating it is to be working hard to avoid work, only to have the real work done by the workmen interfere with your avoidance of work.

But is it not always thus for the people who write for the living?

You know you have to write, you must write, and yet before you can put the words to the paper, everything has to be perfect in your surroundings. Yes, sometimes the words flow like the freshet, tumbling over themselves to escape from your brain onto the page.

At the other times: molasses. Frozen molasses mixed with peanut butter and tar, which you must laboriously unmix and purify using only the single dental pick and clumps of hair you have pulled from you head.

Ayyyy! What to do in the cases when the muses have been chased away? The Manolo’s friend Lisa knows…

Sergio Rossi Tahiti Sandals

Look at the pictures of the super fantastic shoes! Like these pink and red Tahiti Sandals from the Sergio Rossi.

And now, the Manolo will give you the writing prompt, to get the creative juices flowing…

“Daphne,” said Carlo, “rather than rejecting it out of hand, you really should take a moment to consider my proposition.”

Daphne, folded her arms across her chest, unfolded them, and then spoke, “It’s a problem of ethics, darling.”

“It’s those shoes, isn’t it,” shouted Carlo, “admit it, it’s those shoes!”

Daphne looked down at her Sergio Rossi’s — gorgeous, really– and then back up at Carlo, his face as red as the color of her sandals….

Please to leave your best effort in the comments section below.

Sergio Rossi Platforms for the Day after the Memorial Day

Manolo says, it is the day after Memorial Day and you are back at your desk, complaining to yourself about the system that requires you to be invisibly chained to your means of production.

Yes, you are fairly compensated for your mighty efforts on behalf of InEmTechCoCom, Inc, but still, humans were not meant to spend so much time engaged in concentrated labor.

Hard work was meant to be seasonal, during the planting and the harvesting, when we worked long hours in the fields. The rest of the time we should be free to collect pretty rocks from the mill stream, chase the fireflies, and swap tall tales with the old men of the village. We are creatures made for wholesome work and honest leisure, not beasts of burden to be lured with the paycheck carrot and whipped with the performance report stick.

On the upside, the modern economy allows us, if we are lucky, to purchase beautiful and impractical shoes such as these…

Sergio Rossi Platform Sandals A41720

Sergio Rossi Platform Sandals, perfect for the summer months.

The Manolo predicts, in the future, when the robots have taken over, we will all be free to enjoy life without labor….or, perhaps, be exterminated like vermin. It is 50/50.

MAY
2012
15

Sergio Rossi for the Tuesday

Manolo says, it is Tuesday, and sometime within the next few weeks, your children will be released from the school for the summer, and then, the fun will begin, yes?

In the meantime, why not assuage that free-floating anxiety about expensive summer camps and home-alone children by looking at the crazy colorful shoes from Sergio Rossi?

A38790 Sandal from Sergio Rossi

On the one of the hands, artificial uppers.

On the other of the hands, super fantastic colorful plastic!

Sergio Rossi to Fabulous Up Your Day

Blue High Heeled Peep-Toed

Manolo says, what better way to brighten your Thursday than with the pair of the over-the-top fabulous, blue suede, gold bedecked Sergio Rossi platform sandals?

FEB
2008
06

Sergio Rossi Studded Sandals

Sergio Rossi Studded Sandals    Manolo Likes!  Click!

Manolo says, much to your chagrin, your color consultant has identified you as the “mid-autumn trending to Indian summer”, even though you have spent the last fifteen years completely convinced you were the “late spring, with the touch of crocuses.”

And now, thanks to this disaster, you must empty your closet of the lavenders and robin egg blues, and replace them with earth tones and warm oranges.

But first you need something to make you feel better about this shocking turn of the events, something that is both gorgeous and earth toney…look! Here are the absolutely gorgeous strappy, studded sandals from the Sergio Rossi. Perfect!

SEP
2007
24

Sergio Rossi Boots for the Monday

Marvena by Sergio Rossi     Manolo Likes!  Click!

Manolo says, yes, it is Monday and you are back in the office, once again being oppressed by The Man and his minions, the dictatorial junta of supervisors and their toadies.

How you long to break free of this injustice, to rise up and throw off the shackles which bind you!

And so you begin to plan the popular uprising of cubicle-dwellers.

Soon, you and your small band of revolutionaries will take to the hidden storage rooms and service corridors of the building. Moving at night and during the lunch breaks, you will strike where the regime least suspects it, at the very heart of its power, the executive washroom. By such bold and direct action you will sap its will to govern and gather support from among the oppressed peoples, who will soon speak your nom de guerre in hushed and reverent tones.

With luck and cunning, and after months of bitter struggle, you will perhaps emerge victorious, bringing the enlightened rule of the worker to this backward place.

But first you will need romantic, revolutionary boots.

Mira! Here is the Marvena by Sergio Rossi! Perfect for the female Zapata!

Viva la Revolucion!