Summer with the Dolce Gabbana
Manolo says, here from the Dolce and the Gabbana, is the perfect Rodeo Drive Sunday Summer shoe.
Manolo the Columnist
Manolo says, the latest column of the Manolo it is now available for the downloading from the site of the Express of the Washington Post..
This week, the Manolo discusses the methods of rejuvination.
Dear Manolo,
I just woke up this morning and realized that I’m middle aged. Can you recommend something that will make me feel young again, without seeming too ridiculous?
Your devoted fan,
Margaret
Manolo says, the Manolo has only the two words…Kork-Ease!
Yes, now you are firmly in the age of the middle, with the teenaged kids and the mortgage, but put the Kork-Ease upon your feets and suddenly you are transported back to your youthful triumph as the unofficial “Disco Queen of Topeka, Kansas”, when you and the very hot Bob Beiderman tore up the dance floor with your original interpretation of the Hustle.
Oh how the Bob, he could shake his groove thing!
Yes, now he is the balding John Deere salesman with the pot belly and the Buick Riviera, but then he was the hottest young stud to ever put on the white polyester pants, the shiny black shirt and the gold chains. Why the hair on his chest, it was as thick and as luxuriant as the schanuzer pelt.
And you, yourself, you were beautiful and young and lithe, and the flip in the front of your hair it was the envy of all of the other the girls in the typing pool at the insurance company where you worked.
You lived for the night! And the shoes you wore they were the Kork-Ease!
JUN
2006 01
2006 01
Franco Sarto for the Poor Girl Summer
Manolo says, as is often the case, the email box of the Manolo it has been overflowing with the emails from the Manolo’s many internet friends asking the Manolo to help them find the affordable shoes.
“Please,” the internet friends of the Manolo say, “we are the poor working girls who must slave away in the hot office, hiding under the pasted-on smiles our simmering envy of the stylish women who have achieved greater success. Please help us, Manolo, we need the beautiful shoes to ease our pain, but we have no moneys. ”
As always, the reply of the Manolo it is the same, that the poor working girl she must save her moneys so that she may purchase the super fantastic shoes. Also, she should strive to not feel the envy of the successful woman; for all that we know she may suffer from her own disappointments and neuroses.
In the stead it is better to focus on obtaining the beautiful shoes, for owning all of the bargain priced feetwear in the world cannot replicate the feeling one gets when wearing the single pair of the truly refined shoes. It is sublime, similar to the religious experience, only for the feets.
At the same of the time, the Manolo he knows what it is like to be poor in the summer, so poor that you must fashion your own summery white buck shoes out of the discarded ice cream wrappers, cotton candy cones, and popsicle sticks that have fallen onto the sand beneath the cracks in the boardwalk.
And so the Manolo he will help his internet friends by recommending some of the summery light-colored shoes of the Franco Sarto, shoes which sell for under $100 of the American dollars.
As we know the Manolo he has this season gone mad for the wedge heels, and this shoe, the Muro, it has the striking combination of the dark wedge and the white straps that the Manolo finds especially attractive.
Here is another of the wedges, the Dimple, with the similar dark-below, light-on-the-top color combinations.
Finally, here is the oddly named Orator, which is shown here in the white with the blue accents, and in the unusual but very attractive color known as the celedon, the light green. Is it not limitedly perfect in its own inexpensive way?
Manolo the Columnist
Manolo says, the latest column of the Manolo it is now available for the downloading from the website of the Express of the Washington Post.
It is the Day of Memorializing! Celebrate!
Dear Manolo,
Memorial Day is almost here. Can you pick me out a white shoe in honor of this annual fashion milestone.
Sofia
Manolo says, at the last! The summer it is officially here! Let the suffering begin!
It is not the secret that the summer in the District of the Columbia, it can be unpleasant. The humidity and the heat they are oppressive, and the mosquitos they are as thick and as importuning as the candidates asking for the contributions.
It is this latter fact which always makes the Manolo give thanks to the person who invented the electronic zapper of the bugs. This clever device it kills the pests while the electric blue sparks provide us with hours of joyful entertainment.
If only the zapper it could be produced in the extra-strength congressperson size, then this city of Washington, truly it would be the Garden of Eden.
Of the course, the Manolo he has his own ways of surviving the unpleasantness of summers in this climate, most of which involve leaving, and/or never returning. However, there is the other possiblity, which it is to put on the cooling cotton clothing and the white summery shoes and stride out into the wilting world with the attitude of good cheer.
This it is why the Manolo is so very fond of the resort shoes of the Lilly Pulitzer, because they are the epitome of the summer cool. This one, called the Juicy, it is exactly what the weather demands.
MAY
2006 22
2006 22
Gladiator Variation
Manolo says, here from the Beverly Feldman is the attractive variation on the very “with it” gladiator sandal.
This one, with the green jadeish ornamentation, it whispers to the Manolo of the forbidden romantic intrigue with the hunky novus homo who has just risen from the proletariat .
In the other words, it is simply the perfect shoe to feed your Colleen McCullough fueled fantasies.
Casadei on the Sale
Manolo says, here is the fun, flippy, summery sandal from the Casadei. Is it not the sort of pretty happy shoe that makes one wish to skip down the tree-lined streets?
Best of all, it is on the sale. 65% off of the regular price, the savings of over $250 of the American dollars!
Manolo the Columnist
Manolo says, the latest column of the Manolo it is now available for the downloading at the new website of the Express of the Washington Post.
Dear Manolo,
I am getting married in Key West and I want to buy a pair of shoes for my wedding that are not typical wedding shoes. I am looking for a strappy, heeled sandal. And I want them to be blue. Can you suggest anything?Claire
Manolo says, the wedding in the Key of West? Of such things are the dreams of the lifetime made!
Well can the Manolo imagine the high-spirited sort of the ceremony that may take place in this eccentric and tropical location.
As the steel drum band strikes up the wedding march, we see the bride, well-attired in her head-to-the-toe ensemble of Caribbean Lagoon Blue, being escorted across the beach and down the makeshift aisle on the arm of the doughty neighbor, the genius Jimmy Buffet.
Awaiting her at the altar is her husband to be, himself the lovely shade of Sargasso Sea Green, the result of the previous evening’s extensive bachelor party barhop during which he attempted to “raise the ghost” of the Papa Hemingway.
The guests include the usual Key West assortment of smugglers, pirates, treasure hunters, and interior designers, and at the least two, rival Cher impersonators.
To the Manolo this it sound so lovely that he can only pray that he is invited.
As for blue shoes for the feets of the bride, the Manolo would recommend the Refine by the Charles David. The are strappy. They are blue. They are indeed not the typical shoes of the wedding.
The Kate Spade Summer of Fun
Manolo says, this sandal, it is the Kimora from the Kate Spade. To the Manolo this it is so cute and fun, and perfect for that warm day strolling down the boardwalk in your summery sun dress.
So Beautiful!
Manolo says, some of the time, Pucci makes the gasps!
Yes, this shoe it indeed most costly, but is it not also most beautiful?
Vera Wang on the Sale
Manolo says, here is the beautiful and understated strappy gold sandal from the Vera Wang, and look, It is on the sale! 65% off of the usual price, the savings of over $250 of the American dollars!
MAR
2006 16
2006 16
The Leopard
Manolo says, the Manolo he cannot keep his eyes off of these beautiful and exotic Leopard print shoes from the Brian Atwood. They are magnificent!
Deluded
Manolo says, look, the calculating hippie devils behind the Birkenstocks, they enjoy the abuse heaped upon them by the peoples of sensibility and style.
“Nothing says, ‘I want to tell you how to live your life’ more than Birkenstocks,” said Jason Reitman, the director of the film, which is to open in New York, Los Angeles and Washington on Friday. “The visual registers immediately.
There’s something about the shoe that is universally understood that makes it so funny.” The sandals are emblems of liberal do-gooderness, he said, and the senator — a villain in the movie — wants to “regulate the world.”
Though real Birkenstock wearers may come in all political persuasions, using the sandal to represent the pushier side of liberalism is a long-running joke. As it turns out, Birkenstock doesn’t mind at all.
“He’s wearing the Vermont costume,” Scott Radcliffe, the marketing director at Birkenstock Distribution USA, said of Mr. Macy’s character. Mr. Radcliffe said that the “Birkenstock-wearing, granola-crunching, Volvo-driving fill-in-the blank stereotype” emerged in the broader culture without any doing on the company’s part. The company finds it entertaining, he said, that the sandals have reached the kind of status that qualifies them for movie close-ups, even disparaging ones.
“To me a Birkenstock fan looks at that, laughs and is not alienated,” he said.
To me, the Manolo, the person who looks at the Birkenstock and is not horrified is the person who cannot be trusted.
But, chacun à son goût, everyone has the right to look as stupid as he or she chooses.
P.S. Many thanks to the Manolo’s old friend the Wayne for the link to this story.