Welcome ICLW: the OUTFIT CONTEST

So now that I've basically confessed my great devotion to the Manolo websites, I figured I might as well go whole hog and shamelessly plagiarize one of the most entertaining (and, apparently, now extinct) Manolo institutions, the Build-the-Outfit contests. The idea is, he picks an insane pair of shoes. Then, you have to build an outfit to go with said pair of shoes. He picks his favorite. The best iteration of the contest had a price limit, which I'm going to adopt. We'll say someone gave you the shoes as a Christmas present; they're free. You have $200 to spend on the rest of the outfit. After the practice of another manolosphere blog, teeny manolo (but we're not going to discuss that now), I will give a symbolic (not tangible) gift to the winner.

I don't think you can post images in the comments on blogger, so just post links to the images or the pages that host them. They have to be items you find for sale on the internet - items you own do not count. Also, I do understand that part of the fun of the Manolo contest was his position as a fashion critic. Not so moi. I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about that.

One more administrative issue: I know I don't have the following for a full-blown contest. But I want one, so I'm going to hold it anyway. I will hold it open until, let's say, Valentine's Day at midnight, and if there are no contestants by then, I will win (I'll make an entry, just to be fair).

And, without further ado...the shoes! It is the Puma Alto Boot! The suede version comes in several colors - basic tan, ice blue, and even a crazy jewel blue. There may be other colors, but these babies are hard to track down.

There's also a futuristic synthetic version, here in black.

The "Mostro Alto" was also created, in an ultra-limited edition. Seen on a few starlets, this pair is among only 170 that were sold.