Manolo Blahnik - Hardcover

Mcdowell, Colin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 006019684X ISBN 13: 9780060196844

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2000

Synopsis

Showcases the works of revered shoe designer Manolo Blahnik, whose celebrity customers have made him famous, in a photographic tour that also includes images of his initial sketches, homes, factories, designs, and work spaces.

About this title

Review:

The Spanish designer Manolo Blahnik creates the most sought-after shoes in the world. On a supermodel, a Manolo Blahnik shoe completes the perfect ensemble; placed on a pedestal, it becomes a minor art object. Colin McDowell's Manolo Blahnik attempts to capture the genuine excitement generated by Blahnik's creations. It is only partly successful. The breathy writing style never rises above fashion-magazine gossip, though the shoes themselves extend beyond fashion into art and sculpture--even metaphysical meaning. The maestro never puts a foot wrong. The finest materials, gorgeous color, and a sense of the theatrical combine in elegant originals that consistently surprise. We are told that, besides their whimsicality and sexiness, his shoes are extremely comfortable and well made.

Blahnik, "sculptor and engineer," carves each wooden last himself, normally from beech, and supervises the Italian workshops that turn his designs into treasures. His originality may be explained by his lack of formal training, but it is also clear that Blahnik's success is founded on hard work, eccentricity, and boundless energy. The book's photographs and the designer's drawings (especially effective) present the shoes as formal objects in settings replete with rose petals and fashion-photographer textures. As a glimpse into the mechanics of the world of high fashion, Manolo Blahnik works well. Readers interested in contemporary culture, celebrities, and the master's thoughts on toe cleavage and other mysteries will rave about it. --John Stevenson

About the Author:

Colin McDowell is a fashion historian and writer. He is a regular broadcaster on television and radio, and has written for every major newspaper and fashion magazine in London, most frequently for The Sunday Times. His books include Galliano; McDowell's Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Fashion; Shoes: Fashion and Fantasy; Hats; Status, Style and Glamour; Sex, Power and Clothes; The Designer Scam; The Literary Companion to Fashion; Forties Fashion and the New Look; The Man of Fashion and two popular novels. He lives in Kent, England.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 006019684X
• ISBN 13: 9780060196844
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208