The Legendary Manolo Blahniks
The shoes created by this designer are always easily recognizable – they have a tapered toe, a spike heel and something really unique in terms of colors, fabrics or decoration. Manolo Blahnik has been creating shoes for over 30 years now, and has developed his own special style. Yet, the designer is not ready to follow the known trail and is still experimenting, seeking exclusiveness and art in every shoe pair.
Manolo Blahnik, who is half Spanish and half Czech, has graduated from a university in Geneva, then studied design in Paris and started developing his own shoe styles in Britain.
Initially the designer also tried himself in clothes design. However, when he showed his work to Diana Vreeland, a legendary editor-in-chief of the Vogue magazine, she advised him that he worked with the shoes only. In 1973 Manolo Blahnik opened his first boutique in London, which until today remains the favorite place where all the designer’s fans from the entire world like to purchase their shoes.
The most famous Manolo Blahnik shoe is a spiked heel pump.
Manolo Blahnik usually uses classical shapes as a basis for his shoes, then adding some unusual elements, painting them bright pink, for instance, or decorating the straps with small pompons.
For more casual designs, Manolo Blahnik prefers bright green crocodile skin, supplementing them with funny stings.
Sedara 1991 shoe is also incredibly popular among women. This shoe is a combination of black silk, purple sateen and a large brooch with sparkling stones.
Manolo Blahnik is the brand that is famous throughout the world. However, up until now the brand only has one designer – there has never been more. The man who created the brand continues doing the work all by himself.
Saying that Monolo Blahnik shoes are popular among the celebrities is saying nothing. Almost everyone on the famous horizon has at least a couple in their possession. But of course the most famous fan of the shoe is Sarah Jessica Parker from Sex and the City, whose fascination with Manolo Blahnik almost turned the shoe into another character on the show.
Dr. Martens 1460 \ Streetwear – Classic Alive!
The UK’s Dr. Marten – a renowned footwear, clothing and accessories brand - was founded in 1960 and received its name after Doctor Martens – a revolutionary in shoe production. The genius invented that air cushion inside the shoe sole, which helps the feet to always stay in the position that is best and healthiest for them and remain comfortable at all times. Interestingly, the idea to invent air-padded shoes came to Dr. Marten, when the latter was in the army during the war and was inspired by the fact that his army shoes were too much of a pain for his injured feet. Since the time of their creation, the shoes became a favorite accessory of various youth subcultures, including skinheads, hippies, punks and goths.
Dr. Martens 1460 boot is a true brand classic. It was 1960, when the first Dr. Martens boots stepped down from production lines and entered our lives in the form of 8 eye cherry-red Nappa leather boots. They immediately became favorites among workers, especially those, who did a lot of walking, like postmen, police officers and production plant workers. By the end of the 20th century 1460 Boot was already being offered in 3 000 different styles.
For the brand’s anniversary, famous world shoe designers were offered to suggest their own vision for the legendary shoe. The project was welcomed and joined by Jimmy Choo, Levis Strauss, Michiko Koshino, Betty Jackson, Baifal Dream, Caroline Charles, Edian Ronay, Elspeth Gibson, Fake, Heatherette, Jasper Conran, Joe Casely Hayford, Komodo, Mrs Jones, Orla Kiely, Preen, Sean John, Slava, Tristan Webber, Warren Noronha. The designers gave birth to a unique collection of 1460 Boots with a strikingly diverse combination of fabrics, colors and accessories. Results of the joint effort are shown below, with each of the invented products reinforcing the nature of Dr. Martens boots – CREATIVE AND POWERFUL!
Bata Shoe: The History Of Your Footwear
We welcome you on the continuation of our virtual excursion along the halls of the Bata Shoe museum, that tells us about the history and roots of footwear and about bright and unusual footwear traditions of different regions. In our previous posts we told you about Asian mysteries and African wonders, and today let us move to the other parts of the world.
We would like to introduce you, first of all, the footwear of Latin America. Ancient Latin American shoes look absolutely attractive even today. Women shoes and sandals are decorated with glittering clasps and medallions. Also in this hall we can see the museum’s pride – silver-embroided footwear for religious ceremonies that could be worn even in XVth century.
The biggest part of the museum is dedicated to the footwear of the North American Indians. Soft shoes, the ancestors of today’s moccasins, are decorated with colourful geometric ornaments, laces and belts.
We are moving to the Middle East now, and, looking at ornament-embroided shoes and boots from Persia or Afganistan, one can easily understand, where the modern designers find inspiration for creating ever-popular items with eastern fleur.
There is also a hall, totally dedicated to Russian footwear. The major part of the exhibition is represented by unts and other elements of winter wardrobe.
Stay with us and we will continue our virtual excursion to the world of the most beautiful and unusual footwear.
Bata Shoe Museum: Explore The Roots of Your Footwear!
We continue our virtual excursion which started in our previous article. Today we will visit more halls of the Bata Shoe museum and explore the footwear wonders of different regions of the world. Our next stop is India, a mysterious and amazingly beautiful land with its own footwear tradition.
Old Indian footwear can be read like a book, for it tells us everything about the casta system and about the place of its owner in the Indian society. All the types of footwear are represented in the museum – from rough leather sandals to special footwear for religious ceremonies, that was made from silver.
We move east and explore even more Eastern mysteries with the footwear of Japan. It is of extreme interest for all shoe lovers. Let’s, for example observe there special sandals on slanted platform, that geishas used to wear.
Footwear of Korea also shows us a lot of regional peculiarities and wonders. The most interesting item in this hall are wooden boots with raised toe and thick sole of unusual form. In the XIX century the Koreans used these boots to protect the feet from water in rainy weather.
Stay with us and we will continue our virtual excursion to the world of the most beautiful and unusual footwear.
