JAN
2013
04

Manolo the Columnist: Giorgio Armani Two-Tone Wingtip Brogue

Manolo says, here is the Manolo’s latest column for the Express of the Washington Post. Dear Manolo, What are the hot shoe trends for 2013? Kelly Manolo says, from what the Manolo has seen in the various spring shoe collections of the major designers, the hottest trends will be the outrageously tall 6 plus inch heels in the super hot colors, like puce and verdigris, made from the skins of exotic endangered animals such as the lesser tree sloth and the greater pangolin, shoes which will sell in the $4700 and up range. The Manolo’s sources among the with-it crowd…

NOV
2012
08

The One That Got Away

When I started curating my shoe collection nearly a decade ago –when Lacroix still had his atelier, Gaultier was CD for Hermès and Muccia Prada’s current models were still fetuses instead of just practically ones– I did so with the knowledge that someday the newspaper gravy train, where I was raking in tens of dollars a month, would end. I bought carefully and within my means, bringing home a pair of new lovelies only if I could pay cash and was confident they’d be just as stylish thirty years from the moment I stood, insidey parts all a-tingle, at the…

OCT
2012
25

Multiple Choice Time: Dolce & Gabbana

I’m going to Italy with two pairs of shoes. Talk about a tough decision. I mean, it’s Italy. That’s where the shoes were BORN. Selecting one pair of flats and one of heels was like Sophie’s Choice, except you can always have more kids, but Miu Miu only made those vernice slingbacks one season. As much as I’d like to traipse around the cobblestones of Italia in my most precarious heels, it’s not going to happen. You need to be either a billy goat or an Italian woman to carry that off and since I am neither (although I do…

SEP
2012
06

Fab Four: Green Suede Shoes (and how to clean them)

In the spirit of full disclosure, the Venn Diagram of “People Who Think Spangled and Be-Caped Polyester Jumpsuits Are a Good Idea” and “People from Whom Miss Plumcake Takes Sartorial Advice” does not see a great deal of overlapping. Still, as both Elvis and Carl Perkins –the artist responsible for writing the seminal rockabilly classic– know, there’s just something about a good pair of suede shoes. Blue is fine if a little expected, but greens from dusky olive to deep viridian are having a major moment this fall. Plus, green suede ages better blue does, where a bit of dirt…

JUL
2012
09

Marc Jacobs, Spring 2011: Who Wore it Better?

Manolo asks, who wore it better? Malevolent crone, or freakish-scary doll girl? P.S. From the Red Carpet Fashion Awards

JUL
2012
06

Miuccia is Our Muse

Manolo says, Ayyyyy! Cutest ever!

JUN
2012
28

Alexander McQueen 3D Flower Platform Wedge

Manolo says, here is the pair of Alexander McQueen platform wedges with the all natural, organic-y, leather detail that pushes it out of the ordinary and into our cold, urban hearts.

JUN
2012
14

I Can Haz Orange

Manolo says, Please, M. Henri, may I keep it. I am so very hungry.

MAR
2012
09

Manolo the Columnist: Savy from the Vera Wang Lavender Label

Here is the Manolo’s latest column for the Express of the Washington Post. Dear Manolo, In a few weeks, my daughter will receive her first communion. She’s so excited and pleased with her little wedding-dress-like outfit, that it’s made me start to think about what I’m going to wear, probably a linen shift in a neutral color. What do you suggest in the way of shoes? Maggie Manolo says, oh, how the Manolo loves the life passages! The weddings and births, the festivals and celebrations, even the funerals, as sad as they always are. But above all else, the Manolo…

NOV
2011
01

Alexander McQueen Pumps for the Tuesday

Manolo says, it is Tuesday and you are back at your desk, after what turned out to be the relatively sedated Halloween. Yes there were the usual parade of visitors, this year gravely disappointed that your man Gary, he of the elaborate annual Halloween displays, did not celebrate the occasion in his usual over-the-top style. It was in May, when you first noticed that something was amiss, that Gary had not closed off the garage and converted it into his laboratory, the sort of Halloween DARPA, where he has traditionally begun to test the fanciful ideas for his annual extravaganza.…

SEP
2011
29

The Return of the Chopine

Manolo says, clearly, we are in the late-decadent phase of our culture… The Strass Wedge from the Alexander McQueen, which looks remarkably like the 16th century Venetian chopine.

MAY
2011
12

The Abyss Also Stares

Manolo says, this news item surprises the Manolo not in the least. Karl Lagerfeld was obviously joking when he told Hilary Alexander, “I don’t want an intellectual image, I’m a fashion person,” back in January. His latest project – and he is perhaps fashion’s greatest multi-tasker – is to publish the entire works of Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th century German philosopher. Lagerfeld told WWD he would be publishing Nietzsche’s work, in 12 volumes, the way the German philosopher would have wanted it: typeset print alongside the original manuscripts complete with hand-written corrections. Only 3000 copies of “Nietzsche’s Nietzsche” will be…