Manolo's Shoe Blog

NOV
2012 22

Happy Thanksgiving

Ah, Thanksgiving, the day on which people all over the great United States of America come together to gorge themselves on turkey and pretend they prefer foodie Aunt Clara’s pomegranate confit with pink shallot relish to the can-shaped cranberry deliciousness that won the Cold War. Considering the American importance of the date –not only is it Thanksgiving, it’s the 49th anniversary of JFK assassination– I should do a retrospective of Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis’ fondness for Roger Vivier’s pilgrim pumps. Unfortunately, I’m both lazy and jetlagged and so here’s a snap of the La Veuve Kennedy four years later…

JUN
2010 24

Interview With the Curator

Manolo says, the Manolo’s friends at the Collector’s Weekly (which earlier this year published the remarkable interview with the shoe collector John Walford) have returned with the excellent interview with Elizabeth Semmelhack, one of the curators at the magnificent Bata Shoe Museum and author of the book Heights of Fashion: A History of the Elevated Shoe. There is much in this interview to both ponder and enjoy, but below are two intriguing excerpts. Collectors Weekly: How did a pair of Manolos or Louboutins become star accessories? Semmelhack: I don’t think that it was the designers themselves who did it as…

SEP
2007 29

Roger Vivier in the Times

Manolo says, the Times of London has the short article on the life and times of the genius Roger Vivier. The Queen was crowned wearing Vivier gold kidskin shoes, the heels scattered with garnets. Catherine Deneuve wore Vivier buckle pumps in Belle de Jour, turning them overnight into the iconic must-have shoe that they remain to this day. Vivier is the man who invented stilettos and the ground-breaking curved “comma” heel. He dressed the feet – shod seems too ugly a word – of everyone from Elizabeth Taylor to Sophia Loren. Known as the Fabergé of Footwear, his shoes have…

DEC
2005 26

Menkes on Louboutin

Manolo says, the unsinkable Suzy Menkes she has written the story about the inimitable Christian Louboutin! On the shelves of his tiny store (21 Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 75001 Paris) at the corner of a Belle Époque glassed-in gallery, Louboutin’s creations are on display: classic pumps scooping round the toes and poised on a thin 130-millimeter, or 5-inch, heel; sandals with playful pompoms where sturdy straps cross at the front; or operatic effects with lacy leather rings, echoing the years that the 13-year-old Louboutin went round Paris music halls showing his shoe sketches. “Women don’t buy shoes – they look at…

JAN
2005 07

News Flash! The Stilettos Are “Hot”!

Manolo says, here is the very obvious news from the newspapers: Stilettos are Soaring in Popularity. Stiletto heels force a woman’s back to arch, pushing her bosom out in the front and her rear in the back, further accentuating the feminine silhouette. Men like it, and so do women, says fashion historian Caroline Cox. “Men like an exaggerated female figure. Stilettos also make a woman seem quite delicate because you have to balance (in the shoes). She might need a man’s hand,” Cox says. “Women like them because they have a reputation of being glamorous and sexy. Women also get…