DEC
2007
31

Jimmy Choo for the New Year

Jimmy Choo Metallic Python Pump    Manolo Likes!  Click!

Manolo says, it is the Eve of the New Year, and so you are allowed to wear something outrageous and over the top, such as these fabulous golden metallic python pumps from the Jimmy Choo.

What is that you are saying?

Golden shoes will not go with what you are wearing tonight?

In that case allow the Manolo to suggest to you this…

Jimmy Choo Satin Slingback    Manolo Likes!  Click!

The elegant Jimmy Choo satin slingbacks.

DEC
2007
28

Manolo Moda

Manolo dice, no estamos satisfechos con la conquista del mundo de blogs en ingles. Estamos listos y muy bien vestidos para la invasión de los blogs en español. El Manolo presentara su nueva colección de blogs, como un armario lleno de deliciosos Manolo Blahniks, con los temas de zapatos, moda y los famosos.

El Manolo busca autores con fascinación de zapatos, moda y los famosos, un sentido de humor y por supuesto, la habilidad de escribir con inteligencia y sabor en español.

Ha de mas de fama, te prometemos un pequeño sueldo por tus ingenias palabras diarias. Este puesto es part-time.

Si te llama la atención, manda un e-mail a El Manolo, indicando porque serias perfecto/a para el nuevo weblog de Manolo en español y unos links o ejemplos de tu trabajo.

DEC
2007
28

Manolo the Columnist

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

Dear Manolo,

I’ve just made my New Year’s resolutions, and at the top of the list is “get more exercise”. I’m planning a program that combines more jogging with some weight training. Do you have any suggestions for shoes?

Claire

Manolo says, the Manolo learned long ago not to make the New Years resolutions that required any substantial change in his behavior. Madness that way lies. And thus the Manolo only has one standing New Year’s Resolutions:

Make the world more super fantastic.

Be kinder to strangers you meet on the street. Tip waitresses generously. Smile at small children and dogs, even when they are naughty. Have the kind word for shop girls and cab drivers. Engage random strangers in pleasant conversations about growing flowers, and your last trip to the circus. Resist the urge to use your walking stick to pummel rude people who talk loudly on cell phones.

These are the sort of small things that make the world the better place, and contribute to social harmony and understanding. Even better, they are painless and pleasant, and make others happy.

Of the course, if you still wish to go jogging, the Manolo always recommends the New Balance sneakers. Here is the WX1007. You will not be disappointed.

New Balance Sneakers WX1007   Manolo Recommends!  Click!

DEC
2007
25

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

Manolo shouts,

Merry Christmas!

May you have the most joyful and festive of days!

DEC
2007
24

Happy Christmas Eve!

Manolo says, the Manolo is taking it easy this week, enjoying the holiday with good friends and good cheer. The posting at the blog of the Manolo will return to normal on Wednesday, in the meantime, the Manolo wishes you the joy of the season.

DEC
2007
23

Michael Kors Boots on the Sale

Zodiac Boot by Michael Kors   Manolo Likes!  Click!

Manolo, says here are the toasty-warm-looking knee high boots from Kors by Michael Kors that are selling at the deep discount of 40% off of the usual price, the savings of nearly $200 of the American dollars.

Even better, order them now and the Zappos will deliver them on the day after Christmas, just in time to wear to the mall for the day of returns/sales.

DEC
2007
21

Manolo the Columnist

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


Dear Manolo,

I’m going to my mother-in-law’s for Christmas, and I know that I’ll be receiving the gift of clothing I don’t want. Last year’s present was a holiday sweater with snowmen and reindeer. As a reward for my good and uncomplaining behavior I plan on giving myself something special later. What would you suggest?

Anita

Manolo says, this is one of the eternal questions, how to deal with unwanted and unattractive gifts from those we love and/or must tolerate?

Oh, how many times has the Manolo heard stories of gifts gone awry, of presents that can only be purchased at the Quick Stop late on the afternoon of December 24th, such as the loganberry scented candles in toadstool-shaped holders, and the toxic yellow hat and scarf sets, and the Britney-Spears-themed perfumes which smell of wild musk and cantaloupe rind.

One must accept these offerings in the spirit of love and/or desperation in which they were given, with the graciousness and good humor that honors this season of joy.

Of the course, there is nothing preventing you from going out later and getting yourself exactly what you really wanted, and pretending it is from your beloved, such as these beautiful sandals, the Hardcandy from Stuart Weitzman.

Hardcandy by Stuart Weitzman   Manolo Likes!  Click!

DEC
2007
21
DEC
2007
20

You’ve Got the Look!

Manolo says, 1981, it was the simpler time, when hot chicks wore “mom jeans” and monkeys danced in exultation because of it.

P.S. Many thanks to Mr. Isidore Gallant for finding the old jeans commercials.

DEC
2007
20

Holiday Shoes 2007, V

Andle Strap Peep-toe Pumps from Donna Karan   Manolo Likes!  Click!

Manolo says, here are the spirited and sexy ankle strap pumps from Donna Karan, shoes that would make any occasion festive.

DEC
2007
20

Blog.mode Address Fashion

Manolo says, there is the new exhibit that has just opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute entitled Blog.mode Addressing Fashion and sponsored by the Maestro Manolo Blahnik. This morning there was the very good article in the Wall Street Journal about this show.

Fashion criticism has long been the exclusive realm of an insular band of journalists who traveled the big runway shows in Paris, Milan and New York and seemed to speak their own esoteric language. But the Met’s new exhibit, “Blog.mode Addressing Fashion,” is inviting anyone with an Internet connection to critique the clothes on display. With its new blog, blog.metmuseum.org/blogmode/, which went up this week, the august museum is also acknowledging that traditional fashion criticism is over.

The Manolo has been talking about this very thing, the democratization of fashion and fashion reportage and criticism for more than three years now.

The article continues.

“There’s a whole new field out there,” says Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute’s curator. He decided last summer to turn a retrospective of important garments acquired by the museum since 2000 into a three-way conversation of sorts between curator, designer and outside observers. “We wanted to further the practice of fashion interpretation and appreciation,” he says.

The exhibit features 65 garments arranged mostly chronologically, from a circa-1730 British waistcoat to Mr. Theyskens’s ballgown from a 2007 Nina Ricci collection. It contains work from prominent designers like Vivienne Westwood, Comme des Garçons’ creative director, Rei Kawakubo, and Donna Karan. […]

In the middle of the exhibit, a “blog bar” invites viewers to post their own thoughts on the clothes. Curators decided to invite anyone to post comments on the blog after noticing over the past year and a half that fashion blogging is gaining momentum and respect. As influential blogs garner large audiences and advertisers shift ad spending to the Internet, designers and retailers are also beginning to view the medium as a new opportunity to reach people. […]

Many bloggers are “cultivated amateurs,” Mr. Koda said this week, while admiring the 18th-century red wool waistcoat. “I do not think bloggers will change the direction of fashion, but they can inform our interpretation of objects.”

The exhibit also illustrates how the Internet is making high-brow cultural institutions more accessible to a mainstream audience. “Curators aren’t these godlike creatures,” Mr. Bolton says.
[fashion]

The Costume Institute’s democratic approach to criticism surprises some industry experts. “What is astonishing to me is that the fashion industry is allowing these people to become important,” says David Wolfe, creative director at the Doneger Group, a New York retail consultancy.

Here is the person who does not understand how the new media works.

The fashion industry can neither “allow” nor nor not allow the fashion bloggers to become important. It is not within their ability to restrict us from writing what we think about various things. Nor is it within their power to keep many of us from becoming popular voices about matters sartorial. And if we become popular voices, then they, the fashion nabobs, must pay attention to us and our readers, for if they do not, they risk alienating their market.

Thus the importance of the fashion bloggers is entirely dependent upon whether or not they are being read, and has very little to do with the acceptance or non-acceptance of the fashion industry.

The good news, however, is that there are many in the fashion world who understand what is going on.

But some designers find it refreshing. “Fashion is supposed to be this exclusive world that nobody has access to,” says Hussein Chalayan, who uses elements of technology in his designs, such as a remote-control-powered dress in the show. But the Internet is changing that perception. “At the end of the day when you have a critic write about your work, it is just one person who is supposed to be an expert,” he says. “Why is this taken more seriously [than a blogger]?”

For designers, bloggers also represent a useful tool for market research and brand promotion. Shoe designer Manolo Blahnik, who sponsored the Met’s exhibition, says he thinks bloggers have been partly responsible for getting a younger generation of consumers excited about his shoes. One popular blogger who calls himself Manolo the Shoe Blogger has built a community of people who treat footwear criticism as if it were a team sport. “I love it,” Mr. Blahnik says.

Ayyyyyyy!

Did the Maestro Manolo just say that he “loves” the Shoe Blog of the humble shoeblogger?

This is one of the happiest days of the in Manolo the Shoebloggers entire life!! (Although, this is not the first time the Maestro has mentioned the Shoe Blog.)

The fact that Manolo Blahnik, himself, would sponsor the exhibition about the intersection of blogs and fashion says everything we need to know.