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Anyone who has ever shopped for a pair of shoes--especially anyone who does so with a passion--knows that shoes are much more than functional objects. From the sneaker to the stiletto, shoes have become potent signifiers of gender, class, personality, taste, and even politics. This lavishly illustrated work recounts the history of shoes with entertaining essays that cover everything from the eroticism of ancient shoe lacing, medieval fears about long-toed shoes, and the role of shoes in religious ritual to the infamous Chopine with a 23-inch heel and the modern cult of shoe designers. With 170 color photos and 30 black and white illustrations, the essays will entertain and inform casual shoe shoppers and fashionistas alike.
Introduction. A Long Walk: Shoes, People and Places--Giorgio Riello and Peter McNeil
• STEP 1. A FOOT IN THE PAST
• Beneath Their Shining Feet: Shoes and Sandals in Classical Greece--Sue Blundell
• Sumptuous Shoes: Making and Wearing in Medieval Italy--Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli
• Courtly Lady or Courtesan? The Venetian Chopine in the Renaissance--Andrea Vianello
• Walking the Streets of London and Paris in the Enlightenment--Peter McNeil and Giorgio Riello
• War Wellingtons: Military Footwear in the Age of Empire--Alison Matthews David
• The Perils of Choice: Women's Footwear in Nineteenth-Century America--Nancy Rexford
• STEP 2. ENCOUNTERS AND CULTURAL INTERACTIONS
• Purity, Pollution and Place in Traditional Japanese Footwear--Martha Chaiklin
• Interrogating Africa's Past: Footwear Amongst the Yoruba--Tunde M. Akinwumi
• A Dream of Butterflies? Shoes in Chinese Culture--Paola Zamperini
• STEP 3. SHOES, BODIES AND IDENTITIES
• Fashioning Masculinity: Men's Footwear and Modernity --Christopher Breward
• A Delicate Balance: Women, Power and High Heels--Elizabeth Semmelhack
• Shoes and the Erotic Imagination--Valerie Steele
• Sex and Sin: The Magic of Red Shoes--Hilary Davidson
• Beyond the Rainbow: Queer Shoes--Clare Lomas, Peter McNeil and Sally Gray
• STEP 4. REPRESENTATION AND SELF-PRESENTATION
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Made in Italy: Ferragamo and Twentieth-Century Fashion--Stefania Ricci
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Style Through Design: Form and Function--Giovanni Luigi Fontana
• Sole Representation: Shoe Imagery and Twentieth-Century Art--Julia Pine
• Limousines for the Feet: The Rhetoric of Trainers--Alison Gill
• Conclusion. The Male Cinderella: Shoes, Genius and Fantasy--Peter McNeil and Giorgio Riello
Overview
Anyone who has ever shopped for a pair of shoes--especially anyone who does so with a passion--knows that shoes are much more than functional objects. From the sneaker to the stiletto, shoes have become potent signifiers of gender, class, personality, taste, and even politics. This lavishly illustrated work recounts the history of shoes with entertaining essays that cover everything from the eroticism of ancient shoe lacing, medieval fears about long-toed shoes, and the role of shoes in religious ritual to the ...