If Sex and the City If there were a shoe that was the Manolo, it would undoubtedly be it. The footwear and the best-selling book-turned hit series are both very chic at 400 dollars a piece, thanks to Candace Bushnell, author and creator.,Carrie Bradshaw is a real-life Carrie Bradshaw and a self-confessed shoe lover, just like her curly-haired protagonist. In her new one-woman show “Is There Still Sex in The City?” The Daryl Roth Theatre, Bushnell boldly declares, “Do I have a shoe obsession like Carrie Bradshaw? No. Carrie Bradshaw has a shoe obsession because of me.” It all started with one specific pair that “changed her life”—the black patent leather knee-high boots that she wore to her interview with The New York ObserverThis was what led to her landing the infamous column, which led To the book, then to the TV show, and so forth.
In ELLE’s series Clothes of Our Lives, we decode the sartorial choices made by powerful women, and explore how fashion can be used as a tool for communication. Bushnell explains the process in her own words. She recalls how (what else?) her future was forever changed. A pair of Manolos.
It’s a very Sex and the City story. I have a girlfriend—I called her Amalita Amalfi—and she was one of my many friends who I had started writing about in the ‘80s, which is when I started writing about my Samantha, my Charlotte, my Miranda, and dozens of other women.
Not everything that’s on the TV show is entirely accurate, but [Amalita]is a close friend of mine and was a Real fashionista. She was obsessed with shoes and clothes. Manolo Blahnik wasn’t really known outside of fashion circles at the time, and she was just crazy about them. One day—coincidentally, when I was going to interview for a column at The New York Observer—She called me and told me that she had received these incredible boots and that I needed to rush to Manolo to get them. She was like, “These boots are gonna be Magic. You’ll see. If you get these boots, your life will change.” She wasn’t kidding.
Given that New York is a place where everyone needs a little luck, I set out to find them. They were black patent leather boots with pointy toes and were super chic. They were miraculously able to make them in my size. They cost $600, which was a lot at the time. It is hard to believe that these boots would now cost $1,500.
Back in the ‘90s, New York was a place where your shoes really mattered, because people judged you by your shoes. There was a saying that when you went into a restaurant, the maitre d’ would look at your shoes. Designer was only available in Manhattan, London, Paris, or Chicago. It’s not like today where it’s everywhere. It was a sign that you belonged to this elite group of people “in the know.” Those kinds of things were important signifiers. Fashion doesn’t work like that anymore. Everything is easier to find.
I think [Amalita]I always hoped to meet a man of society. I got the boots instead and did an interview with him. The Observer to be a gossip columnist. I literally carried the shoes around in my shopping bag! I didn’t get the job so I put the boots aside and the editor-in chief called me to offer me my own column. I donned the boots to my first piece and went to Le Trapeze sex club. There, a photographer took a photo of me standing on top a pile of garbage with a towel. That was the beginning. Sex and the City. They did bring me luck, I’m sure.
The story was called “Swingin’ Sex? I Don’t Think So …” Before I went to Le Trapeze, I went to a dinner for Karl Lagerfeld at Bowery Bar. I wore my boots there as well.—They worked for society and sex. They did it all!
When I bought the boots, I remember the saleswoman telling me, “These are Amazing.” They were definitely TheHot boot, and my first pair Manolos. Imagine a three-and-a-half-inch heel with a zipper at the back that goes all the way to the knee. They were my favorite pair of shoes. EverythingEven black-tie events. You had to be able to walk in it, and I was able to do that. a lot These shoes are my favorite. I even had rubber soles fitted to them. They were my go-to for many years.
Twenty-seven years later, I still have the boots—they’re even a prop in my show. I have always kept them since I wore them on my first assignment. I always thought, “Someday, people are going to realize that these boots are Special. These boots were made to be worn by women. Writing.”
The opening lines Sex and the City are about single women: “They travel, they pay taxes, they’ll spend $400 on a pair of Manolo Blahnik strappy sandals.” It’s still true.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and condensed.
Source: elle
