Manolo asks, whose shoes?

Manolo says, after six and the half years as the editor-in-chief of the Manolo for the Brides, dear friend of the Manolo, Christa Terry (a.k.a. Never teh Bride) is moving onto bigger and better things.

It’s time for me to make a difficult announcement. To indulge in a spot of cliché, I’m not sure how to say it, so I’ll just come right out with it.

I’m resigning from Manolo for the Brides and Manolo for the Home.

During my time writing for Manolo for the Brides and Manolo for the Home, I’ve grown personally and professionally. When The Manolo took a chance and hired me to be a member of his team, I was a small-time journalist and freelance writer who’d started a blog mainly to complain about a boyfriend who was unwilling to get married. Now I’m a published author who’s married and a mom, and my accomplishments at Manolo for the Brides and Manolo for the Home have been the door openers to numerous interesting and lucrative opportunities.

It is the very sad day for the Manolo, for not only has the Christa been the regular and dependable fixture in the Manolosphere, but she is also the great writer, someone who is blessed with the wonderfully entertaining and readable voice. And so, for the past six years, the Manolo has woken up each morning eagerly wanting to see what the Christa has written, and thanking the heavens that he had someone as good as her working for the peanuts the Manolo could offer.

The Manolo will miss her keenly, but knows that she will succeed at whatever writerly endeavor she undertakes.

Farewell, dear Never teh Bride!

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

Dear Manolo,

Labor Day is this weekend, and I’m confused about the rule that prohibits the wearing of white after that date. Where does it come from and why should I pay attention to it?

Miranda

Manolo says, it has been two or more years since anyone has asked the Manolo about the white shoes and the Day of Labor, the fact which the Manolo takes as evidence of the final death throes of this old rule.

Its origin lies in the ancient history of Edwardian America, when lightweight suits, hats and shoes in light colors became the preferred summertime clothing of the rich and leisured. When the summers ended, these comparatively casual clothings were put away and the sobriety of black and brown were resumed.

To have several suits of seasonal clothing, when the working people made do with the same clothing year round, was considered the mark of refinement, hence it became the rule to which the socially elevated and those who aspired to that status, rigorously adhered. White in summer, black and brown the rest of the year.

Now, of the course, we live in the vastly more crass and materialistic culture, and clothing is cheap, and cheaply made. And the rich and famous are distinguished not by their sartorial refinement, but by the outrageousness of their televised antics.

And so the Manolo’s rule is now wear what you desire, as long as it is refined, well-made and appropriate to you and the occasion.

Here is the Just The Little Knotty Wedge from Lilly Pulitzer, not exactly white, but still the fun and flirty post-Day of Labor rule breaker.

Manolo says, the internets occasionally bring us wonderful and wonderfully amusing things, such as this video below…

Not always, but more than once in this montage, not only can the Manolo tell you what year is being portrayed but what month!

Manolo asked, whose shoes?

Manolo answers, it is the Kathy Bates!

Congratulations to the Manolo’s internet friend, the Palmero, who was the first to correctly identify this week’s ill-shod celebrity of note.

Manolo asks, whose shoes?

Manolo says, it is Tuesday and you are back at your desk, looking forward to this final weekend of the summer. Indeed, you are ready for the summer of 2011 (or as you have titled it, The Summer of Disappointment) to be finished.

This past week was the final straw. For two weeks, you had been preparing for the big cookout and family gathering at the seashore, only to have the Hurricane Irene derail everything at the final moment.

Worse, when you got up on Sunday morning, there was Geraldo Rivera standing (well, leaning into the stiffish breeze) on your front lawn declaiming loudly to no one in particular that conditions were “horrific.”

Two seconds later, you made Gary put on his rain slicker and go out into the “hurricane” with the shovel and chase Geraldo away from your property, as if he were the importuning raccoon.

Is it fall yet?

Look! Autumnal shoes, in the hottest color of the season, bordeaux.

The Two-tone Runway Pumps from Valentino, shoes which have transcended the ordinary with the addition of the unusual ankle-strap birdcage thingy.

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

Dear Manolo,

This is a question of pressing importance. What do you suggest in the way of stylish rain boots, something that can stand up to the demands of a category four hurricane?

Ellen

Manolo says, ayyyyy! 2011 is turning out to be the annus horribilis, the Latin technical term which sound like the unpleasant personal condition, but actually means the “Year of Horrors.”

Our horrific year began with the succession of the late winter Snopocalypses, each one colder and snowier than the last. This was followed by the chilly, soggy, and disappointingly brief spring, which gave way to the summer of successive and unprecedented heat waves.

And that was just the weather!

The Manolo has not even mentioned how our politics and economy and society have all simultaneously gone cuckoo crazy. Up is down and backwards is forwards, what with the flash mobs, and the rioting, and the stock market crashing, and the unseemly political wrangling.

And this week….Ayyyy! It is not enough that we have just had the major earthquake, but now there is the hurricane forcasted to barrel down upon us by the weekend.

What next? Meteors?

In light of this, the Manolo recommends the original high gloss Hunter rain boots in the candy pink (one of nine available colors). At the least, you can wear somthing fun and girly as you wade to the corner Quikmart to loot the Kardashian wedding issue of People from its ruins.

Manolo asked, whose shoes?

Manolo answers, it is the Daryl Hannah!

Congratulations to the Manolo’s internet friend, the Stella, for being the first to correctly identify this week’s crunchy granola nutbar star, whom the Manolo always sees at the Santa Monica farmer’s market dressed exactly as you see above.

Manolo says, our dear friend Miss Plumcake is back from the vacation and en fuego!

Manolo asks, whose shoes?

Manolo says, it is Monday, and your long family nightmare is over…the children have returned to school!

Indeed, it is the most wonderful time of the year!

Celebrate with beautiful shoes….

Today, while your young ones are schlumping dejectedly throgh the halls of the Dr. John T. Grabble Charter School for Exceptionally Amazing Gifted Children, you will be kicking up your heels in these Claudette Suede and Snake-Print Peep-Toe Ankle Boots from the Elie Tahari, your reward for the long, long summer.