Whose Shoes Wednesday…The Answer!
Manolo asked, whose shoes?
Manolo answers, it is the Eleanor Roosevelt!
Congratulations to the Manolo’s internet friend, K., who was the first person to correctly guess the person to whom the shoes belonged.
SEP
2007 12
2007 12
The Marc Jacobs Backward Heel
Manolo says, apparently the conciet at Monday’s Marc Jacobs show was that everything was cuckoo-nutty bass-ackwards, and thus the show began with the designers bow, and went backwards (and/or downhill) from there.
Naturally, the perfect shoes for such presentation were those with the “backward heel.” The Manolo’s internet friend at the Cuffington blog suggests that there may be the physics lesson here.
Frankly, the Manolo is not feeling these shoes.
As for the clothes, this quote from the NY Sun’s Pia Catton made the Manolo laugh.
The evening dresses had a peculiar “Beetlejuice” quality: one-third Goth, one-third downtown, one-third cat-loving, nutty-artist girl — not exactly man bait.
Finally, you will notice from the short video clip below that the music was not played backward.
And for the very good reason, as everyone knows what happens when you play Ravel’s Bolero backward.
SEP
2007 12
2007 12
The Pliner Rock
Manolo says, here is the Rock from Donald J. Pliner, in the black suede and the brown antique “gator”.
The Manolo finds this shoe ever so faintly Marie Antoinette-ish, but in the good ball-gowns-and-frippery way, not in the “Let-them-eat-cake” while-being-dragged-to-the-guillotine way.
SEP
2007 12
2007 12
The Balenciaga Sportiletto
Manolo says, all of the Manolo’s friends have been emailing the Manolo with the link to this article in the Sun, which expresses outrage about the childishly colorful and futuristic Balenciaga sandal.
THE season’s fashion must-have is a £700 shoe that would be more at home in a toy shop.
The Sportiletto, from a top designer, is a Lego-like high-heel.
The footwear is said to be influenced by snowboarders, but the real inspiration for the crazy child-like design seems to have come from 1980s kiddie favourite the Fisher-Price 1-2-3 Rollerskate.
[…]
Models on the catwalk look bizarre as they wear thick grey tights and jodhpurs to model the Sportiletto. The shoes are designed by Nicolas Ghesquiere for fashion house Balenciaga. Unbelievably, there are already orders waiting at top London stores.
To those who follow the fashion blogs this is the old news, indeed many of the Manolo’s internet friends were reacting as early as March to the appearance of these sheos on the catwalk. Of the course, back then they were still priced at the exorbitant $4175, not the more reasonable £700.
As for the Manolo’s opinion, which has been repeatedly solicited, the Manolo must say that he finds them amusing, in the sort of fun and silly way, and thinks that they could worn to good advantage by the right super fantastic girl.
Certainly, they are not for everyone, and the girl who wears them would have to be young and sporty, as they would look ridiculous on the more mature person.
Also, the Manolo has to say that he much prefers this colorful version of the shoe to the others produced by Balenciaga in the same Fall ’07 collection.
And even this black sandal shown above (next to it’s possible design inspiration) is preferable to the bootie version below.
This, the Manolo does not like.
Yes, this is the unusual shoe, however the Manolo does not reject it out of hand as he thinks it is the worthy experiment, one that is not the complete failure.
