Shoes: The Complete Sourcebook
Shoe lovers will salivate over this comprehensive pictorial guide to fabulous footwear through the ages. Peacock, a former costume designer for BBC Television in London, illustrates every possible shoe imaginable, starting with an array of skimpy sandals from Ancient Egypt and moving chronologically up to a French high-top sneaker from 2003. The book is almost entirely visual, including over 2,000 colorful drawings of men's and women's boots, slippers and heels. With only brief descriptions of each shoe's materials and design, readers will probably be left wanting a more in-depth history about the development of footwear through the centuries. Who designed that red, white and blue French mule in 1789, for example? And what led to the creation of the first Assyrian boot from 3,000 years ago, which is so strikingly similar to present day Uggs? For those interested in costumes and fashion, the illustrations will make this an invaluable reference source. There's plenty of variation among the models depicted, from elaborately beaded Byzantine Emperor's shoes to simple English heels with bows from the early 1900s, but one notices how trends recur throughout shoe history. Recent designs borrow from millenniums of style, like the huge Venetian 16th-century platforms and pointy medieval ankle boots. Peacock also includes a helpful index profiling important designers from the 1800s to the present.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.