Manolo says, last Friday, when the Manolo was answering the question posed by his internet friend Meredith, who works in the office of the Congress person, the Manolo came very close to recommending these shoes, the Caddy from the Charles by Charles David.
But, such is the sadness of the working girl, that fun shoes with interesting details are not appropriate in every professional situation.
N.B. Several of the Manolo’s internet friends have responded heroically to the Manolo’s plaintive call for help. This post, by the marvelously erudite and witty Sarah, is the first of the guest posts provided by these wonderful friends.
The Manolo is in the rut. The Manolo is filled with the ennui.
The Manolo has brought me such pleasure over the years that I have been reading his blogs, and has added so many touches of beauty to my life that I find this douleur completely unacceptable. It is true that March does have a tendency to bring in da funk, but the Manolo must not be permitted to suffer. I am compelled assist him in rediscovering his joie de blog.
And so, with no further ado , let’s talk about Shakespeare.
The great fashion joke in Shakespeare comes in his play Twelfth Night when a pair of wealthy party animals joins up with a clever maidservant to convince the uptight and unfashionable Malvolio that his beautiful young employer, Olivia, is in love with him. As a sign of his passion for her, he is told that he should wear yellow stockings and cross-garters. Our merry pranksters consider this to be as hilarious and humiliating as Charlie Sheen’s latest antics.
For those of us who aren’t living in the seventeenth century, however, the joke falls a little flat.
Here’s what’s going on. Sort of.
The truth is that even those of us who study this stuff aren’t entirely sure why yellow stockings and cross-garters are hilarious. So really, the most famous fashion joke in history is something of a mystery. But I can give you a few possibilities to bring up the next time Shakespeare comes up in conversation as he so often does.
First, yellow stockings and cross garters look like this:
So that's comedy gold right there.
Second, the flashiness of the cross-garters and yellow stockings is over the top, even for the excesses of men’s fashion in the Renaissance.
Here’s Henry VIII, who was no slouch as a sartorialist. Notice, though, how plain his stockings are.
Hank 8, Rocking the Stockings and Garters
And he was King! Malvolio is just a steward (a high level servant/manager type).
So, they’re funny-looking, and they’re overly flashy.
It gets worse for Malvolio, though. In the Renaissance, great legs were one of the most enticing and macho things a man could put on display. The other, well….
(more…)
And here we see miss Aubrey O’Day at the premiere of her new Oxygen reality show All About Aubrey (a program I can only imagine is going to be both titillating and inspiring).
Oh heavens, where to begin. First, I applaud her for the effort to draw attention away from her face ( made entirely out of fondant these days) with an “eye catching” outfit, something she tossed together at the very last minute by scrounging through a Frederick’s of Hollywood sales rack.
But those shoes…
Unless someone is planning on making a parody of the Spice Girl’s “Wannabe” music video, I feel that shoes this obscene and this pink should be banned for any feet that don’t plan on being wrapped around a pole for a few hours.
N.B. The Manolo has asked his friend Trisha Marie to help him from time to time.
Manolo says, the seventh episode of the FN Shoe Star is now available for your viewing pleasure.
This week the contestants are presenting to the judges their finished shoes which are to accompany the Rebecca Taylor runway collection. But, first, the they must make the detour to meet with Vasilios! (the Manolo has added the exclamation mark, because he deserves it), the chairman of the F.I.T.’s accessories department. All the Manolo can recall from these meetings, is that the Vasilios! likes to use the word “feisty”.
And then it was straight to the judging table, where the Michael Atmore, back in full brood, is joined by Rebecca Taylor and the Edelmans, the Sam and the Libby, of the Brown Shoe.
'Lord, what fools these mortals be.'
Again, the actual construction of the shoes left much to be desired, as did the generally muddy color choices of the designers. The strangest decision, however, was Shannon’s convertible shoe, which looked like the hot mess with the fur cuff, and worse with it off, and which looked nothing like the sketch which won the quickdraw challenge. Here is the Manolo’s advice, if Rebecca Taylor has chosen your sketch as the best of the lot, you have to make that shoe, not go off on the wild flights of fur-and-frippery fancy.
In the end, for the Manolo the clear winner was Hyojin, whose asymmetrical ankle-cuff sandal was by far the best thing presented. But, we must wait until next week to see who the judges pick.
Hyojins Shoe
In the meantime, you must now go watch this new episode.