Manolo says, the Manolo’s most recent column for the Express of the Washington Post it is now available for the downloading at their website. Today, the Manolo he discusses the “hip” shoes for the man.

Dear Manolo,

Can you recommend a pair of hip shoes for a downtown sort of guy?

Robert

It is no secret that the Manolo he loves the shoes, but it is perhaps less well known that the Manolo he disapproves of the “hip” shoes for the men.

The “hip” shoe, it is the lamentable trend, with its gaudy colors, and its too-square-or-too-pointy toe, and the ridiculous exotic leathers like the iguana, or the ostrich, or the alley cat.

If it is your desire to look like the Argentine tango pimp then by all means wear the hip shoe.

However, if you wish to be taken seriously, as the adult man should naturally wish to be, then you should remain on the side of tradition.

Where the fashion for the men is concerned, the Manolo he is the traditionalist. Men should wear well-polished, good quality feetwear, which should distinguish itself not with the outré color, or the hand-tooled cat leather, but with the high quality of the material and the workmanship, and with the classical, elegant line of the shoe itself.

Thus the Manolo he would recommend to his “downtown” friend the black monkstrap shoe from the Bally called the Breda.

The monkstrap shoe it is the ever so slightly eccentric shoe. Indeed there is the faintest whiff of the mystery about the man who wears the monkstrap. This man he is not the uptight man of business, instead he is free from such mundane concerns, and yet there is still the admirable personal restraint. He is slightly old-fashioned, but in only the best sense, as being one who does not abandon tradition at the first blush of the new.