Shoes: A History from Sandals to Sneakers

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Giorgio Riello Editor

Peter McNeil Editor

Berg Publishers, Oxford, UK and New York, 2011 2006, English

Nonfiction, Fashion Design

ISBN: 9781845204433

From the Publisher. Shoes are now much more than just things to walk in. From kids on the block to models on the catwalk, we use them to signal how fashionable we are. But, beyond style, this most intimate object communicates much more . . . our sexual desires, aesthetic sense, social status and personality. And, before they became supreme objects of desire, shoes had a history. From ancient times to the present, shoes have had a cultural as well as a practical purpose. Within these pages is pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about shoes—the tiny crushing shoes of China, the infamous chopine with its 23-inch heel, how dandies made men's shoes beautiful in the 18th century, and how the powers of conservatism made them dull again, war and the Wellington boot, sex and the high heel, the codes of the "gay shoe," shoes in fairytales and in art, the irresistible rise of the sneaker, and the cult of shoe designers.

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Valerie Steele

On Valerie Steele’s Book List

This has lots of great pictures from the Bata Shoe Museum and 20 chapters on everything you could ever want to know about shoes, from antiquity to the present, including lotus shoes, military boots, red shoes, high heels, and shoes in art. It also includes an excerpt from my book Fetish: Fashion, Sex & Power.

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