LOS MANOLOS SHOES OF MANOLO BLAHNIK DESIGNER

The shoe designer Manolo Blahnik (Santa Cruz de la Palma, Canary Islands, Spain 1942), has been recently awarded the National Prize Fashion Design 2012. Internationally renowned, Manolo Blahnik has used the last four decades in dress women's feet with his famous "Manolos" designs that sometimes reach eight inches heel.

Born to a Czech father and a Spanish mother and raised in the Canary Islands, Blahnik graduated from the University of Geneva in 1965 and studied art in Paris. He moved to London in 1968 to work at fashion boutique "Zapata" and wrote for Vogue Italia. After showing his portfolio of fashions and set designs to Diana Vreeland, she told him that he should design only footwear. In 1972, Ossie Clark invited him to create shoes for his runway show. With a loan of £2,000, Blahnik bought "Zapata" from its owner and opened his own boutique

Influenced by Visconti's films and paintings by El Greco, Goya, Velázquez and Zurbarán, Spanish designer has created more than 20,000 pairs of shoes following a traditional process in which he designs, shapes and finishes each of his shoes, who baptizes with the original names.

Manolos typically cost between 500 and 6000 euros. With 22,000  designed shoes, Blahnik has worked with heels of all heights and popularity of their models finished giving his own name to them and inventing some models, like the "kitten heel" (a heel of 3 cm).

In the 1970s,  Manolo Blahnik turned back his attention to the stiletto heel, which has remained the brand's mainstay to this day. Manolo Blahnik shoes have rapidly become a symbol of pure classical style for the 21st century.

Blahnik's boutiques are located in London, New York, Las Vegas, Dublin, Athens, Madrid, Istanbul, Dubai, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore and Stockholm.

Part of their success has to do with celebrities from film and music who love his shoes such as Madonna, who has come to describe them as "better than sex", since "last longer". Or such as  the actress Sarah Jessica Parker in the series "Sex and the City", who in one of its chapters and fully struggle with a burglar pleads " Take my Fendi bag, my ring and my watch, but please do not take my Manolo Blahniks". 

Also Los Manolos appear in a Lady Gaga song and in the "Twilight saga: Breaking Dawn" film, Bella Swam wears Manolo Blahnik shoes for her wedding. They appear as well in the bestseller “Fifty shades of Grey”. And Letizia Ortiz wore Manolos when she married Prince Philip. And among his many admirers are: Jessica Biel, Kathy Perry, Miranda Kerr, Jennifer Aniston, Rihanna, Katie Holmes, Blake Lively, Olivia Palermo and Victoria Beckham.

"Men tell me I've saved their marriages, it has cost them a fortune on shoes, but it's cheaper than a divorce, so it seems that I am still useful", the designer jokes .......

This prodigious shoemaker have accumulated numerous awards. Blahnik was elevated to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1987. He was awarded the honorary title of  Commander of the British Empire in 2007 for his service to the British fashion industry and was the first shoe designer who has exhibited his work at the Design Museum in London.

Blahnik currently lives in Bath, United Kingdom and was awarded an honorary degree from Bath Spa University in July 2012.

There is not any doubt Los Manolos are elegant, prestigious, beautiful, gorgeous, wonderful, amazing....... but........ I have only just one question ....…..are they also comfortable?

Source: 

El diario de Navarra

20 minutos

Wikipedia