Manolo Blahnik shoes

   




Manolo Blahnik (born November 27, 1942) is a Palmero fashion designer and an eponymous fashion label, one of the world's most prominent in women's shoes.

Born in Santa Cruz de La Palma in the Canary Islands to a Czech father and a Spanish mother and raised on a banana plantation, Blahnik graduated from the University of Geneva with a degree in literature in 1965 and went on to study art in Paris. He moved to London in 1970 and opened his first shop in 1973 by buying out an existing shop called Zapata in Chelsea.

In a scene from Sex and the City, during the episode titled "A Vogue Idea", Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) holds up a pair of Manolo Blahnik Mary Janes.His shoes, now sold in stores bearing his name around the world, range in price from about $500 to $2500. They often come with stiletto heels, which can reach as high as five and a half inches, and embellishments like beads or ribbons. The television show Sex and the City mentioned his shoes so often that it helped cement his place in pop culture, and he was said to be the "fifth star" of the show after the show's four lead actresses. His late wife, Nola, was his inspiration for making shoes.

Established in the 1970s, Manolo Blahnik has become world famous. His beautiful shoes exude a level of craftsmanship rare in today's age of mass production, and he has a wonderful sense of line and silhouette. These talents, combined with the other footwear sense he displays and exploits, have ensured his rightful position as a true genius in his field, worthy of sharing the mantle worn by the other brilliant shoe designers of the 20th century, Yanturni, Vionnet, Perugia, Ferragamo, and the one he most admires—Roger Vivier.

Manolo Blahnik shoes are synonymous with high-heeled, beautifully-crafted shoes as worn by the girls in Sex and the City, Madonna and Paloma Picasso amongst others. Blahnik shoes are noted for their flattering fit and individual charm. One pair has a strap resembling a snake winding around the wearer’s ankle, another pair is rather whimsically shaped like a glove. Manolo often finds his inspiration in other eras, such as the Regency or rococo periods, and uses details found there in his thoroughly modern shoes.

The Blahnik shoe factory in Parabiago, Italy, turns out fewer than 100 pairs of shoes in any one day. This is because each shoe is subject to about 50 different processes during production and so the whole procedure is very laboured and slow. The limited numbers mean that there is a high demand for Manolo Blahnik shoes, and the most faithful customers order them without even seeing them, such is their trust in the designer. Every design produced is overseen by Manolo, who still carves heels himself.

Blahnik was born in 1942 in the Canary Islands. His mother was Spanish and his father Czech. He studied literature and architecture at the University of Geneva and wanted to be a set designer. In the 1970s he had his first dip into shoe design, making some men’s shoes, but it was not until Diana Vreeland encouraged him to try women’s shoes that Blahnik really got going. Blahnik’s passion for shoes may have begun when he saw Marlene Dietrich teetering across the desert in high heels in the film Morocco. Books and films inspire his designs, and he says that he tries to create “fleeting moments” rather than shoes. His first boutique opened in London in 1973 and he gradually started making more and more refined styles.

Nowadays Manolo Blahnik shoes appear in top catwalk collections and in glossy fashion magazines, as well as on the heels of the rich and famous. He is an iconic shoe designer and his opinion about shoes is much respected across the globe, just as his wonderful shoes are sought after by any self-respecting, well-heeled girl.