Manolo’s Shoe Blog

Manolo says, here is yet another article about this year’s Super Duper Hottest-Hippest Shoe!!!!, the Yves Saint Laurent Tribute. (About which the Manolo has already written.)

YOU’LL fall head over heels. Maybe literally.

The must-have shoe for spring is the “Tribute” from Yves Saint Laurent, adorned with a towering 5 1/2-inch heel. Sold out in most New York retailers, it’s one of the tallest high-fashion shoes ever produced - yet celebrities such as Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez and Gwen Stefani can’t wait to walk at elevations usually reserved for Las Vegas dancers and Vivid Video actresses.

And who among us would not wish to look like the porn actress?

Of the course, this has not kept the slavering masses and their enablers in the press from enthusing in the breathless voices.

“You’re not going to feel sexier in another shoe,” says Chris Frey, accessories director at Lucky magazine. “It’s one of those things you wear when you’re jumping into a cab, going to the event, and jumping out of a cab. I have a shelf life of about two hours in a shoe like this.”

Frey says the shoe’s insane sex appeal isn’t just about the height, but also the shape and style. Plus, she thinks there’s something confident, gutsy and cool about a girl who can get that high.

“I think what’s so cool about it is we’ve been seeing platforms for so many seasons and they’re not going away. But YSL sexied it up by adding the stiletto,” she says. “Plus it’s a Mary Jane style that’s so hot this season with an ankle strap that’s not too high on the ankle so it still makes your leg look super-long.”

For Frey, they’re also inspirational.

“It’s a lunge-inducing shoe because you want to wear the shortest skirt possible with them,” she says. “It’s like a gym membership for a year in a shoe, because as soon as you put them on you feel five pounds thinner.”

And fifty IQ points dumber.

It is not the bad shoe in the shorter versions, but this excessively tall one is just silly.

Manolo says, for the past few months the Manolo has tried to avoid writing about the Yves Saint Laurent Tribute pumps, the peep-toe mary jane platforms with the six inch heels.

These shoes are the current “it” shoes, the hottest of the hottest, worn by the celebrities such as the J-Lo, the Becks, the Gwen Stefani, the Christina Aguilera and other hot young chickies who are in the eye of the public (often like the persistent sty).

The reason the Manolo has avoided writing about these shoes is that he does not particularly care for them, and because it is the policy of the Manolo to avoid whenever possible becoming involved in the extraordinary popular delusions and in the madness of the crowds.

However, the Manolo has now decided to write about them because there is the amusing article about them in The Mail of London.

Last night, I walked in the hallowed heels of Victoria Beckham, Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera and Gwen Stefani, risking vertigo and personal injury for the sake of high fashion.

And “high” is the key word here. Having survived the experience, girls, I doff my cap to you.

The Yves Saint Laurent “Tribute” Mary Janes are this season’s must-have shoes. In London, they are sold out and there is a waiting list of 200.

On American eBay, the last resort for a desperate shoeaholic, they are changing hands for $1,295 (£648). Mercifully I managed to get hold of one of the last pairs at the YSL store in Manhattan. Next delivery isn’t until mid-May.

The shoes come in three colours: black (with a cream-coloured heel), red or purple, and two heel heights; four inches or five-and-a-half. At the front they have a one-and-a-half inch platform and a thin ankle strap.

“Oh my, they are very, very sexy,” purred Paulo, my Peruvian sales assistant, as I strutted in front of the mirror. I’m 5ft 5in, and was now nearly 5ft 11in. For $660 (£330) - a bargain by today’s designer shoe prices - my legs looked impressively long.

“You could dance all night in them,’ Paulo assured me. “The platform sole actually makes them more comfortable because it’s like your foot is only really working with a two-and-a-half inch heel height. You see?”

As the Manolo has said in the recent past, we have entered the final phase of the platform mania, and these shoes are yet more proof of the Manolo’s thesis.