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Shoes: A History from Sandals to Sneakers

Shoes: A History from Sandals to Sneakers

by Giorgio Riello (Editor), PeterMcNeil (Editor)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2006

    $3.44
Synopsis

What do your shoes say about you? 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 eighteenth 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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More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 448
 Edition: 01
 Publisher: Berg Publishers
Published: 01 Aug 2006
ISBN 10: 1845204433
ISBN 13: 9781845204433

Media Reviews
At last a work that deals not only with the history of footwear, but also with its cultural significance. This volume helps transform the shoe from a mundane object of everyday use into something of great social and psychological power. Manolo Blahnik If you have ever wondered why women are forever in search of, consumed by, in love with, transformed by 'The Perfect Shoe': wonder no longer. Simply read this history of shoes. Then go out and buy some more. Stuart Weitzman ... moves the shoe definitively from the margins of 'accessory' to the centre of fashion. This survey of the shoe in all its aspects - historical, cultural and global - reveals footwear as a key to the vicissitudes of fashion and iconic in itself. Elizabeth Wilson ...an examplar in showing what is possible, what can be done and how to go about doing it...By our shoes are we known, read and put into social identity boxes. Cultural Sociology A landmark publication and immensely timely for the history of dress. It provides not only a wealth of important new information about the public and private meanings of shoes but also a sharp critique of these previously neglected articles of wear. Margaret Maynard Never losing its footing in the methodological minefield that is cultural history, Shoes: a history from sandals to sneakers strides impressively towards establishing footwear as a significant commodity, metaphor, aesthetic object and signifier within a wide-range of cultural and historic contexts. Ulrich Lehmann With hundreds of stunning photographs, Shoes: A History from Sandals to Sneakers traces the importance of just about every kind of footwear to reveal how fashion has changed over the years. Zoom Fashion Portal An exceptionally beautiful and wide-ranging history of footwear. The Observer Anyone who has ever spent the rent on a pair of impossibly high stilettos, has bought shoes that don't fit, or owns shoes they have never worn, will want to get their hands on this beautiful coffee-table tome. The Times Magazine Charting their history, 'Shoes: A History from Sandals to Sneakers, takes a peak at some of the best. Stilettos, wellies, sneakers and boots - they're all included and put in their cultural, historical, political and social contexts, each foot fashion is explained in detail alongside beautifully executed illustrations and photographs. Dazed and Confused All them [the contributors] are engagingly passionate about their particular footwear niche. ... Erotic Connections are everywhere in this book. ... Hardly a stone is left unturned - or unillustrated - in this department. The Times 'Shoes: A History from Sandals to Sneakers' is footwear fof thought. This lavishly illustrated collection of essays presents a global history of the humble (and not-so-humble) shoe as a symbol of style, status, sexuality and desire, from ancient times to the present day. The Remix - supplement to the New York Times [Shoes] is lavishly ... illustrated, and the pages of text are colour-coordinated with the pics, as good accessories should be. The Evening Standard This book reveals all this and more, guiding readers through footwear history and giving some examples of artistic, literary and, obviously, fashionable interpretations. Alessandra Capozzi, Collezioni Donna
Author Bio
Giorgio Riello was born in Italy and is now living in London. He has a degree in economics and a doctorate in history and has researched and taught in several British and Italian institutions including the Royal College of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Open University and the University of Padua. He is currently co-ordinating a research project on cotton textiles in the early modern period at the London School of Economics. He has widely published on fashion, textiles, product innovation and design in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and is the author of A Foot in the Past: Consumers, Producers and Footwear in the Long Eighteenth Century (Oxford University Press, 2006). Peter McNeil trained in the history of art with a focus on design history. His MA 'Designing Women' examined inter-war women and interior design, and his PhD 'Fashion Victims' explored Enlightenment menswear, caricature and identity around the figure of the 18th-century London macaroni, a stylish fop. Another current interest is the relationship between fashion, furniture and interior architecture. He is Chair of Design History in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at the University of Technology, Sydney.