Manolo Blahnik stamps out the platform shoe

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/shoppingandfashion/6416453/Manolo-Blahnik-stamps-out-the-platform-shoe.html



‘Sex & The City’ shoe designer prefers the ‘Zero Sole’



There can be chine else in the world as thrilled as Manolo Blahnik, the man who put the sexy shoe into ‘Sex & The City’, that the clumpy, plodding reign of The Platform appears to be finally tottering to a close.
“Yes, yes, yes. No more platforms, please. I’m so glad!” the celebrity cobbler said this week at the launch of his spring/summer 2010 collection at Soho House, which features elegant spike-heeled stilettos on a fine, ‘zero’ sole, and pretty flat sandals.
“Maybe I lost money by not doing them (platforms) when they were in fashion this time. But I don’t care. I did them in the 70s. That was enough for me. Never again! I don’t like them!”
A quick browse through the elegant Thames & Hudson publication, “Manolo Blahnik drawings”, with a foreword by no less than Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of American Vogue, reveals Blahnik’s obsession with the platform sole nearly forty years ago. Several drawings, signed, dated and accompanied by descriptions and notes in his flowery script, are of platform designs made in 1971 for Ossie Clarke. Another drawing features a lime-green, one-strap sandal, balanced on what Blahnik describes as ‘a brick’, of black patent leather; another, an ankle-strap platform in leopard-print with a high, stacked heel, could have stepped straight off the Paris catwalks during the autumn/winter designer shows in March.
“Don’t talk to me about platforms. I’ve done it all before. It bores me now. I want shoes to be beautiful, so women walk beautifully. Shoes should be beautiful - Oh, and of course, a little fun also.”
Next season’s collection is certain to thrill the international fan club of ‘Manolo-cholics’. The designs are grouped in several categories. Sculpture, for example, takes reference points from the works of Alexander Calder, and architecture, and includes a glorious ‘Guggenheim’ high-heeled, sandal in curved, semicircles of different neutral shades. ‘Equestrian’ covers the thonged, strapped and laced styles, with a hint of dressage and saddlery which take their inspiration from the riders and horses in paintings by Rubens. ‘Spectacle’ gives free rein to Blahnik’s sense of wit and fun and draws on the theatre and the Big Top. One style, in particular, in purple and white-checked satin and crepe-de-chime, has a hint of the gladiatress, with cut-outs and a peep-toe; another, a peep-toe, sling-back ankle-boot, is in a pretty, blue rose, Liberty print; while a black-and-white canvas, ‘clown spot’ flat, piped in red, is tied at the ankle with a wide, leather bow.
‘Applique’ embraces a range of heels and flats, decorated with revetted, leather flowers, while medieval ironwork craftsmen have given rise to intricate sandals, cut from a single piece of Cordovan leather, worked in swirls and filigrees. There is not a platform to be seen.
But will we be seeing more Manolo’s in the movie sequel to ‘Sex & The City’, which recently started filming in New York?
“I’ve sent them lots, but you never know,” the shoe designer says.
If I’m any judge, SJP/Carrie will have taken one look at Manolo Blahnik spring/summer 2010 - and decided she needs much, much more wardrobe space.
In the meantime, Blahnik is working on the second edition of his drawings which will be published next year.