Manolo Blahnik

Romance packages at spectacular seaside resorts? Those are so 2007. This Valentine's Day, truly groovy couples will nibble chocolate-dipped strawberries, sip Champagne and gaze into each other's eyes not in a deluxe suite on the Gold Coast but in a shoe store. And not just any shoe store: Footcandy in Brentwood is the only place in town to find the big three --Jimmy Choo, Manolo Blahnik and Christian Louboutin--under one roof. What could be more romantic than that? For $350, the 11/2-year-old boutique is offering a "Romance Your 'Sole' Mate" package that gives lucky couples the run of the shop for an hour, a 15% discount on all the shoes they snatch up ($770 jeweled D'Orsay pumps by Choo--grab 'em!

MANOLO BLAHNIK became a household name when "Sex and the City" made his sexy stilettos practically a member of the cast. But before Carrie Bradshaw started giving him shout-outs, the shoe guru was already a star to the well-heeled women who wear and collect his designs -- a list that includes Madonna, Bianca Jagger and Diane von Furstenberg. Blahnik's shoes are a perennial on Hollywood red carpets -- as common as Spanx and cleavage tape.

Walking into the exhibition sends the saliva glands into overdrive. There they are, 700 of the world's most delectable treats for the feet, chronicling the 30-year career of the man whose shoes are known simply as Manolos.

In his response to the Howard Rosenberg article on "Sex and the City," Lee M. Jockers (Letters, Jan. 12) bashes the four female stars, asserting that "men of quality and substance would have no interest in these foulmouthed, aging bimbos and their $300 shoes." Jockers is simply wrong. I have been assured by my wife, who is an expert on the cost of fashion, that the Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo shoes featured on "Sex and the City" start at $500, and many styles of these shoes cost more than $800.

The delicate, sinuous and sleek shoes of Manolo Blahnik live somewhere between sex and sculpture. So intense is the adoration and loyalty of his fans that when he makes his single annual personal appearance in the United States, usually at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills, the crowds gather like pilgrims at the Shrine of the Stiletto. For three intense hours last Friday, Blahnik alighted on the hallowed ground of the shoe salon where he is duly worshiped.