How does one explain Manolo the Shoeblogger to someone who’s never visited his wildly popular internet site? Well, take two parts high-class shoe fetishist, one part Ricky Ricardo, and one part Jacques Barzun, a dash of Ignatius J. Reilly, shake vigorously and decant liberally, and you’ve got Manolo the Shoeblogger.

Since first appearing in October, 2004, his website, Manolo’s Shoe Blog, has become one of the best read fashion sites on the internet, and the Manolo himself has been praised by authorities as various as the Wall Street Journal, Vogue, Fortune, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, and the master shoe designer himself, Manolo Blahnik, for his eccentric, erudite, and at times outrageous sense of humor, and for his extensive knowledge of shoes and fashion.

Now, in The Consolation of the Shoes, the Manolo reveals yet another side of himself, recounting a late night visitation from a mysterious woman, a visitation that sends the young Manolo on a quest to find the perfect pair of shoes. Along the way he wrestles with a series of footwear-based teleological and eschatological problems culminating in a transcendent moment of pure shoe joy. Throughout the Manolo remains his usual unusual self, full of cockeyed aphorisms, oddball observations, and trenchant social and cultural commentary, all of it both hilarious and very intelligent.

Find out what the readers of Manolo’s Shoe Blog have long known, that fashion and philosophy are not incompatible, and that Manolo the Shoeblogger is one of the funniest and smartest people you’ll read this year.

Manolo the Shoeblogger’s Press Clippings

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“But a recent story in The New York Times on this burgeoning arena of citizen fashion reporters sadly overlooked the guy we think is the most entertaining: Manolo the Shoe Blogger”

Sydney Morning Herald, September 26, 2005
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The king of the fashion blogosphere is the mysterious author of Manolo the Shoeblogger. A verbal parody of Manolo Blahnik, the site is filled with discussions about shoes, celebrities, and a guided tour of the TV programmes the Shoeblogger’s watching and books he’s reading.

Unlike blogs that just trawl the shops telling you what to buy, the pleasure here is in the wit and erudition fo his writing, for here is a man who names Marcel Proust, Epicurus, Michel de Montaigne, John Locke and Adam Smith as his intellectual heroes, while waging an online war against the poncho and those weird rubber shoes called Crocs.

But the great pleasure of reading Manolo’s blogs is his exuberant manipulation of the English language…

Linda Grant, “Trade Secrets”, Vogue UK, January, 2007

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“Mais qui est le Manolo?” Manolo le Shoeblogger est un individu modeste qui adore les chaussures. Il est plus grand que vous ne l’imaginez, il a plus de cheveux que vous ne le pensez et il est bien mieux éduqué que vous ne le croyez. C’est un flâneur appliqué qui adore se promener dans les rues des grandes villes, s’asseoir aux terrasses, échanger des gossips aves ses amis en sirotant des cappuccinos et des Campari. La mode et la culture pop sont ses sujets favoris, et bien qu’il soit versé dans des sujets plus profonds, il est fier d’être superficiel.

Vogue Francais, December, 2006

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A NEW YORKER who goes by the name Manolo the Shoeblogger has been delighting the fashion pack this year with bitchy snippets about high-profile individuals, calling John Galliano, for instance, a “freaky little fashion troll” and Gerard Depardieu “slovenly and outwardly repulsive”. Rather disappointingly, the cutting remarks haven’t been coming from Manolo Blahnik himself, although the great man doesn’t seem at all bothered by the gossip the cyber blog has generated. “Manolo the Shoeblogger? Sorry, not me. But it’s very funny, isn’t it? Hilarious,” Blahnik told The Times.

Vogue UK Daily News, October 19, 2005

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If you haven’t seen it before you really must go have a look – it’s a blog written by ‘the Manolo’ about shoes and celebrities. Odd topic? Yes and no – in fact the more I reflect on ‘the Manolo’ the smarter I realize that they are as its a blog that crosses two popular niches – shoes and celebrity.

The blog is written in the third person by ‘the (anonymous) Manolo’ who has a real cult following. The style of writing is quirky, fun and at times quite bizarre – but I (and many thousands of others) love it!

Problogger, September 23, 2005

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We are referring, of course, to The Manolo, surely the God of BlogMarketing

Mr. Snitch Blog, March 7, 2005

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The Click
Super Fantastic Shoe Genius
King of the Heel
Shoe are You?

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Read an excerpt from the Manolo’s forthcoming autobiography, Super Fantastic