Shoes For The Dancer’s Toes
Manolo says, one of the Manolo’s many internet friends has asked the Manolo the question.
I’m looking for shoes to wear this summer/spring, and adore the light, flirty sandals that many designers have created. Here’s the bad news: I’m a dancer, and while my feet look fine (thank goodness) my toes are a mess! After all of these years of dancing, they’re crooked, scarred, and some of my toenails are rather ugly from all the damage they get…
Are there any pretty, flirty, and above all, stylish shoes for this spring/summer that don’t show toes or show very little? I’m getting awfully tired of watching all of my non-dancer friends wearing sandals in the summer while I seem to be stuck in heels or my dance shoes…
Ayyyyy! The toes of the dancers, they can indeed be most “gnarly”. Yet, at the same of the time, the dancing en pointe it gives one the lithe and comely frame and the legs that are the envy of the friends, no?
Is this not always how it is with the life? Into it both the blessings and the curses they come.
Manolo says, this question, it has proven to be one of the more difficult ones that the Manolo he has attempted to answer. On the one of the hands, there are many of the pretty and flirty shoes for the summer this season. Yet on the other of the hands, the summer shoes of prettiness and flirtiness that cover the stank nasty toes, they are indeed most difficult to find.
However, it is not in the nature of the Manolo to fail where the shoes they are concerned. So below are three of the toe-covering shoes that perhaps meet the requirements of the Manolo’s internet friends.
These shoes from the JP Tods they are not so much the “flirty” as the sporty, yet with the kitten heel and the Tod’s hardware, they are dressed up and ready for the afternoon gathering at the yacht club.
This mule of the woven straw from the Isaac Mizrahi, it has the light and airy feel, like something for the tropics, that is if the tropics, they were on the Upper East Side.
Manolo can only say, flirty? Pucci makes the smiles!
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Comments
Antonia H. McQuown 20 years ago
La BellaDonna, she wishes to draw the Manolo’s attention, and that of his dancing friends, to the beautiful brocade flats of the Constanca Basto. They are beautiful, they are light, they are summery.
(And to the friend of the Manolo who said, “are they not a little too “The King and I”? La BellaDonna must respond, “… And your point is?” The Oscar De La Renta, he shows the many influences around the world in his designs, as do many many others. The Greek sandals, they are beautiful; the mukluks in the winter, as appropriate, they are beautiful; the beaded sequinned flats of India, they are beautiful; the brocaded flats of the Constanca, they are beautiful. The diversity, it is beautiful.)
La BellaDonna, she does not dance en pointe, but she has the many many broken toes from smashing into the surprisingly unyielding mats of the martial arts. All the toes, more than once; so she feels the pain of the Manolo’s dancing friend. (Actually, she feels the pain of La BellaDonna, but it is not dissimilar). La Belladonna, she also feels the pain of wanting the superfantistic shoes of the summer, and what often works for La BellaDonna might work for the Manolo’s friend, the Giselle. (it is the little joke!) The Giselle, she is not so far off in saying, “… or will I be stuck in my dance shoes?”
This season, there are the many, many different ballet-inspired flats, which are beautiful, light and flirty, and come in many many varieties, from the simple white canvas mesh from the Keds (with little blue and green striping across the covered toe), to the funky sneaker-inspired ballet flats of the Nine West, across a wide spectrum. They are available in many different places this season, in canvas, in tapestry, in suede, in leather. There are also the many spectacularly decorated shoes of the India, in pale or bright satin. (Sometimes these appear as if they might flap off the foot; La BellaDonna, who has the narrow chisel-shaped foot, takes hers to the shoemaker, has three pairs of eyelets put in, and laces them on with pretty ribbons.)
La BellaDonna hopes this might be of some use, and that the Manolo’s dancing friends may also have the superfantastic shoes of summer!
Suzanne 20 years ago
Thank you, Manolo, these selections are also very good for the super fantastic woman who works in the super stuffy law office which does not allow the women to show their toes, lest their clients get the idea that the women lawyers are a bunch of toe-flashing trollops.
Aunt Snow 20 years ago
Too true, Suzanne. My workplace has a prohibition against any shoe “Where someone goes between your toes.” There was a fear that, in an emergency, some low-level staffer might have to brief the CEO, and said CEO would be distracted, diminishing his incredible leadership powers, by the site of any material, be it plastic, cloth or leather, going between the toes of an employee.
Aunt Snow 20 years ago
Whoopsie. I meant “where someTHING goes between your toes.”
I would imagine MANY workplaces would frown on someONE going between your toes.
La BellaDonna 20 years ago
Ha! Aunt Snow made La BellaDonna laugh!
Actually, Aunt Snow nearly made La BellaDonna do a spit-take. And does Aunt Snow’s workplace allow the bare toes without the destructive, distracting thong? Or thing? Or is the possibility of the polished toenails blinding the CEO too dangerous?
La BellaDonna waves to the Suzanne, who is the fellow-sufferer in the offices of the law, and hopes that a subversive flower or two may find its way to the shoes of the superfantastic Suzanne this summer.
Do the offices of the Suzanne allow the backless shoe of the mule? The offices of La BellaDonna had the big brouhaha for the two summers over whether the bare back heels of the female workers would bring an end to the Life As We Know It.
Kai Jones 20 years ago
Ha! I’m a legal secretary. The first firm that employed me (almost 20 years ago) did pantyhose checks in the summer–that is, you had better be wearing them! Now I work for a much more relaxed place: the main rule is don’t scare the clients (and since they’re mostly unions, don’t overdress as well as don’t underdress).
Viatrix 20 years ago
Oh dear…the Viatrix, she may have to leave the law school now….
fiddypairsofshoes 20 years ago
fiddy is also of the law profession but works for a big conservative company as an inhouse lawyer–we are also not permitted to let someone or anyone [:}] go between our toes and not supposed to be able to wear the shoes of the mule.
However, if the pants are long enough…who is to know that one is wearing the shoes of the mule and is going backless???
Roxie 19 years ago
I also would like to say that I dread when summer comes now that all you see is sandals. Everyone I know wears them except for one friend and myself. I just hate it…most of the time I try to stay home and not go out much because I have become so self-concious about it…
I have lost the tips of two toes due to a car accident and I cannot wear open-toes without feeling everyone is looking at my foot. I pray that someday, sandals go away!!
I would love being a man. They do not have to endure what women do when it comes to fashion. They can wear tennis shoes, loafers for the summer and no one thinks anything if they don’t wear sandals.
Are the styles going to change????
imqowzkpwh 18 years ago
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