Giorgio Riello IS PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL “Anyone who has ever spent the “At last a work that “Charting their history, : A HISTORY AND CULTURE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF rent on a pair of impossibly high deals not only with the History from to WARWICK. HE HAS WIDELY PUBLISHED ON stilettos, has bought shoes that history of , takes a peak at some of the best. FASHION, TEXTILES AND PRODUCT INNOVATION IN don’t fit, or owns shoes they have but also with its Stilettos, wellies, sneakers and EIGHTEENTH- AND NINETEENTH-CENTURY – they’re all included and put in their EUROPE AND ASIA. HE IS THE AUTHOR OF A FOOT never worn, will want to get their cultural significance” cultural, historical, political and IN THE PAST (2006) AND GLOBAL COTTON (2012). hands on this beautiful coffee- MANOLO BLAHNIK HE IS THE CO-EDITOR OF SEVERAL VOLUMES, social contexts” Dazed and Confused table tome” The Times Magazine s INCLUDING THE FASHION HISTORY READER: GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES (2010, WITH PETER “All [the contributors] are engagingly MCNEIL). “A global history of the humble passionate about their particular (and not so humble) shoe as a footwear niche ... Hardly a stone is left Peter McNeil IS PROFESSOR OF DESIGN symbol of style, status, sexuality unturned – or unillustrated” The Times HISTORY IN THE SCHOOL OF DESIGN AT THE and desire, from ancient times UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, SYDNEY AND to the present day” The Remix – “Lavishly illustrated, and the pages of FOUNDATION PROFESSOR OF FASHION STUDIES supplement to the New York Times text are colour-coordinated with the AT STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY. RECENT pics, as good accessories should be” PUBLICATIONS INCLUDE FASHION: CRITICAL A history from sandals to sneakers Shoes The Evening Standard AND PRIMARY SOURCES (4 VOLS, BERG, 2009). “An exceptionally beautiful and edited by Giorgio Riello and Peter McNeil HE IS CURRENTLY AN INVESTIGATOR WITHIN wide-ranging history of footwear”

“FASHIONING THE EARLY MODERN: CREATIVITY The Observer R

AND INNOVATION IN EUROPE, 1500–1800,” iello & What do your shoes say about you? FUNDED BY THE HUMANITIES IN THE EUROPEAN Shoes are now much more than just things to walk RESEARCH AREA (HERA). in. From kids on the block to models on the catwalk, we use them to signal how fashionable we are. The publication of this book is supported by the 25th But, beyond style, this most intimate object Anniversary Prize of the Design History Society (UK) and communicates much more … our sexual desires, by the Associazione Calzaturifici Riviera del Brenta M aesthetic sense, social status and personality. And, (A.C.Ri.B.), one of the principal shoe manufacturing before they became supreme objects of desire,

organizations in Italy. The images in this volume were c published with the generous support of the Bata Shoe shoes had a history. From ancient times to the N Museum in Toronto. The Museum houses a collection of present, shoes have had a cultural as well as a more than 12,000 artefacts and supports research into the eill practical purpose. cultural, historical and sociological value of footwear. Within these pages is pretty much everything you Front cover image: Black patent leather super elevated ever wanted to know about shoes – the tiny crushing platforms by Vivienne Westwood. Reproduced by kind shoes of China, the infamous with its permission of Bata Shoe Museum. Back cover image: 23-inch heel, how dandies made men’s shoes Absolut Stiletto by Guy West. Reproduced by kind beautiful in the eighteenth century, and how the permission of Guy West. Image on spine: Golden shoe produced by Bally, Switzerland, 1939. Reproduced by powers of conservatism made them dull again, war kind permission of Bata Shoe Museum. Jacket design: and the Wellington , sex and the high heel, the Burge Agency. codes of the “gay shoe,” shoes in fairytales and in art, the irresistible rise of the sneaker, and the cult of shoe designers.

ISBN: 978 0 85785 038 6 £19.99