Manolo Blahnik Fashion Merchandising and Marketing - Assignment Example

Teacher I. Summary Manolo Blahnik is a fashion designer known for his branded upscale shoes. His shoes are known as “Manolos” are considered as the “pinnacle of women’s footwear. Light as a feather and, often, festooned with frills—ribbons and lace, sequins and beads, cherries and chinchilla have all made appearances” (www.vogue, nd). Manolo Blahnik started his own brand of footwear with a meager £2,000 loan where he bought the fashion boutique “Zapata” where he used to work before.

From then on, Manolo was set to become as one of the most decorated fashion designer in footwear. The process of creating Manolo’s legendary shoes begin with a sketch in his home using a Tombo Japanese brush pen . He designs all the shoes by himself without any assistance making the shoes as the most coveted footwear among women (Design Museum). II. Quotation: "About half my designs are controlled fantasy, 15 percent are total madness and the rest are bread and butter designs" - Manolo Blahnik The above quotation suggests the creativity involved in each Manolo Blahnik shoes.

When he said controlled fantasy, it was actually a metaphor of the fanciful process of design where Manolo uses his imagination extensively. When he said 15% of total madness, he did not mean it literally that he is going mad with the design but rather his boldness to try the unknown, to do a design that does not follow the norm. The first two aspects of the quotation was the creative part of creating the shoes. Manolo however balances his creativity with pragmatism knowing that his footwear must also sell for him to make a living.

Thus, he balances his creativity when he said “About half my designs are controlled fantasy, 15 percent are total madness” with the pragmatism of business with the other statement that read “the rest are bread and butter designs”. Bibliography Manolo Blahnik / - Design/Designer Information. (n.d.). Manolo Blahnik / - Design/Designer Information. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from http://designmuseum.org/design/manolo-blahnik Manolo Blahnik. (n.d.). - Voguepedia. Retrieved March 24, 2014, from http://www.vogue.com/voguepedia/Manolo_Blah