Manolo Blahnik

Manolo Blahnik is a name that has become synonymous with mainstream high fashion footwear since the late nineties. In 30 years, the Manolo brand has surpassed all ideas applicable to luxury footwear and continues to establish itself as a stylish art form, revered by all fashionistas, trend setters, and worldly critics. The aura has been exacerbated by such popular culture acts ranging from Sex and the City to Jay-Z. And now, he has created some of the most exquisite shoes that the fashion world has ever seen.

Mr. Blahnik’s origins, however, are far from the world’s fashion centers of New York, Paris, and Milan. This gentleman is of mixed descent, born in 1942 to a Czech father and Spanish mother on a Canary Island banana plantation. The family frequently traveled to Madrid and Paris in order to purchase clothing. Young Manolo remained captivated by his mother’s fashion magazines and learned the craft of shoe making by observing the woman construct her own footwear from ribbon and lace.

Originally, Manolo’s parents envisioned a career as a diplomat for the youngster and he acquiesced, enrolling at The University of Geneva to study politics and law. However, Blahnik quickly rejected the coursework in favor of literature and architecture after one semester. He then relocated to Paris to study stage design at The Louvre Art School. Manolo moved to London in 1970, following his father’s advice that he improve his English. He was employed as a photographer for The Sunday Times and thereafter became a staple of the jet setting art design community.

Manolo Blahnik attributes his status as a leading authority of style to serendipity. In 1971, Diana Vreeland, editor of Vogue stumbled onto his portfolio of drawings and set designs while Blahnik was on assignment in New York City. Vreeland encouraged Manolo Blahnik to dedicate his life to making shoes, rather than garments.

Fashion Illustration

Fashion Illustration is a medium in which creative expression can be given free rein and designers can explore ideas before the realities of budgets, fabrics, or physics intervene.  Fashion designers’ sketches reveal inspiration as well as color and style. When learning to transfer ideas onto paper, designers are taught to find their own style. Each designer should have theier own unique design that sets their designs, or even their drawings, apart from any other designer. Nothing captures a fashion moment or mood quite like a designer’s first drawing for a dress.

Here are a few pictures of distinct fashion illustrations. (I couldn’t find many specific designer sketches.)

 

A Little Bit About…Vera Wang

Vera Wang, age 59, is an American fashion designer based in New York. She is known for her wedding gown collection, among other specialties. Vera Wang has not always been the successful bridal designer like she is today.

As a girl, Wang trained as a figure skater, and competed at the 1968 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. She was actually featured in Sports Illustrated’s Faces in the Crowd in the January 8, 1968 issue. When she failed to make the U.S. Olympic team, she entered the fashion industry.

Wang was a senior fashion editor for Vogue for sixteen years. In 1985, she left Vogue after being turned down for the editor-in-chief position currently filled by Anna Wintour and joined Ralph Lauren as a design director for two years. In 1990, she opened her own design salon in the Carlyle Hotel in New York which featured her trademark bridal gowns. She has designed costumes for figure skaters, including Nancy Kerrigan and Michelle Kwan. She also has made wedding gowns for Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, Avril Lavigne, Victoria Beckham, Jennifer Garner, and Sharon Stone among others.

Vera Wang has expanded her brand name through her fragrance, jewelry, eyeware, shoe and houseware collections. She also wrote the book Vera Wang on Weddings which was released by Harper Collins in October, 2001. On May 27, 2006, Wang was awarded the André Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award from the Savannah College of Art and Design. In the Sex and the City movie, Vera Wang was featured amongst the many bridal gowns Carrie Bradshaw wore in a Vogue photo shoot.

Today, Vera Wang is one of the most prominent fashion designers in New York City.

Classics to keep in Your Wardrobe

Every woman should start out with some classic items: a little black dress, a cashmire sweater/cardigan, a pair of black heels, a trench coat/pea coat, a solid color shirt, an earth-toned handbag, and some nice black pants. After you have a few of those basics, you can start adding on with trends. The trends for this spring are said to be “cut-away clothes”, long romantic fairy-tale dresses, jewel-encrusted clothing, romanesque draping, military style garments, oversized bows, and flapper style dresses. These trends start from a runway, then worn by celebrities, seen by fashionistas, and then bloom into clothes that people itch to have in their closets.