This week’s book in reception: Manolo Blahník Drawings
by Julian Gratton
Shoes. Quite possibly the thing that women love the most. Which could quite possibly mean that Manolo Blahník has pleasured more women than any other man on Earth! For those of you who do not know the man who says that his shoes are not fashion… they are gestures… then pick up this week’s book in reception and discover the wonders that this man has created to grace the feet of wealthy women the world over.
Contained within it, the book lays out his designs as brightly colored whimsies, sketches that deftly convey the essences of his creations. As designs, the shoes are salacious cartoons of themselves, curvy and heeled, bejeweled and shimmery. Celeb quotes, interspersed throughout, 
heighten the spiraling sense of posturing and play. Madonna says, they are as good as sex… and they last longer.
You just put on your Manolos and you automatically find yourself saying ‘Hi sailor’ to every man that walks by, says Joan Rivers. Naomi Campbell calls the man the godfather of sole. Paloma Picasso, Isaac Mizrahi, Bianca Jagger also check in, and there are introductory essays by Vogue titans Anna Wintour, Andre Leon Talley and Anna Piaggi, as well as by Michael Roberts of The New Yorker.
Divided by decade, from the 1970s to the 2000s, the collection is diverse and fun. It should appeal to any fashionista or design aficionado or anyone with a sense of shoes as art.
Tags: Design, fashion, Fashion Design, Illustration, Manolo Blahník Drawings, Manolo Shoes, Shoe Designer
