Manolos, the most coveted among shoes, are the work of Spanish designer Manolo Blahnik, whose story is full of passion. “If God had wanted us to only wear low heels, he wouldn’t have created Manolo Blahnik.” The designer was born in Santa Cruz de la Palma in the Canary Islands in 1942 to a Czech father and Spanish mother. He and his younger sister Evangelina spent their childhood at the family banana plantation.
He graduated in literature and architecture at the university of Geneva, then went on to study art in Paris. He later moved to London, where he worked in a boutique and quickly became part of the local art scene. He landed inNew York in 1971 where heshowed his sketches and scenographies to Diana Vreeland, who wasat the timeeditor of Vogue America. She loved the sketch of an impressive shoe and told him to “Go make shoes.” His iconic Mary Jane pumps were created in 1994. The popular TV show Sex and the City later celebrated Blahnik, at first in the USA and then all around the world. Cinderella, the main reason women are so obsessed with shoes, cannot be the muse of a designer who follows “spoiled, crazy, eccentric and cold” women.
His shoes cost as much as a monthly rent, but they’re like a moving sculpture and who’s to say we couldn’t live inside a pair, with a bit of imagination. “Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world,” is something Marilyn Monroe once said and it’s precisely the way Manolo Blahnik’s shoes project.
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3 thoughts on “Manolo Blahnik: still the most wanted shoes”
Want them all!
By the 1990s Mr. Blahnik had become a household name in the United States thanks to the TV show “Sex and the City,” whose Carrie Bradshaw character (Sarah Jessica Parker) wore “Manolos” religiously. Mr. Roberts at the time was the first fashion director of The New Yorker, where one of his jobs was working with the notoriously picky photographer Irving Penn.
I’m trying my best not to make this blog about coats and shoes but the heart wants what it wants. I like most girls was introduced to Manolo Blahnik during the reign of Sex and the City. I wanted the proposal shoe – the blue pointy pair encrusted with a square diamond on the roof of the shoe. You know the one’s? Flash forward to 2017 and I’m not so fussed about those anymore. There’s a new kid in town, it’s still a Manolo Blahnik, it’s still blue and it’s still pointy. There’s something about this shoe that speaks to the woman I am (or aspire to be) – my inner Jackie Kennedy. I would save up to buy this shoe – I mean I’ll have to if I want them. Maybe it’s just a pipe dream for me? No! One day, Manolo Blahnik you will be mine – until then stay sassy.