For footwear lovers who want the thrill of looking at thousands of shoes without actually paying for them comes the new book A Century of Style: Shoes by Angela Pattison and Nigel Cawthorne, available at National Book Store. In it you’ll find profiles of all the hottest designers, like Jimmy Choo, shoemaker to Princess Diana and now the gals of Sex and the City; Manolo Blahnik, the stiletto king who made it fashionable for women to fork over US$500 per pair; and Roger Vivier, the legendary designer for Christian Dior who invented both the spike-heeled stiletto and the chunky platform shoe.
The beautiful photos in Shoes feature every style and brand of note, from the earliest court shoes worn in French palaces to the high-tech sneakers of today, accompanied by a wealth of information. Here, some fascinating bits of trivia culled from the book:
• The American shoe industry began in Massachusetts, where they mass-produced shoes in factories.
• Celebrity shoe designers are a phenomenon that began in Europe, where artisans painstakingly crafted each pair by hand.
• Modern pumps evolved from court shoes worn in the palaces of 12th-century France.
• The high heel was invented by Florentine Catherine de Medici, who launched it in Paris in the 1500s.
• Sex goddess Marilyn Monroe said, "I don’t know who invented the high heel, but all women owe him a lot... It was the high heel that gave the big lift to my career." Famous for her sexy walk, Marilyn had another secret: to increase her hipswaying action, she had one heel made slightly shorter than the other.
• Coco Chanel popularized the modern pump: to go with her soft suits and little black dresses, she developed a simple heeled slip-on shoe based on slippers. She also designed the now-classic two-tone slingback pump.
• In the ’20s, Italian designer Salvatore Ferragamo was the Hollywood shoemaker to the stars, supplying footwear for sandal epics like the Ten Commandments and developing arch supports so shoes could be made slimmer and more elegant.
• Jackie Kennedy got her court-shoe-inspired pumps from Rene Mancini, who designed shoes for both Givenchy and Chanel. She would order 12 pairs from him every three months, then only eight pairs a season when she was married to Aristotle Onassis. Since Jackie, it became de rigueur for First Ladies to wear court shoes to formal occasions.
• The Eighties sparked the craze for designer labels and designer shoes: Manolo Blahnik in England, Robert Clergerie and Maud Frizon in France, Salvatore Ferragamo and Bruno Magli in Italy.
• Royal shoemaker Jimmy Choo left his native Malaysia in the early ’80s to study at Cordwainer’s College in London–Cordwainer’s is the alma mater of most of the top shoe designers in the world today.
• The stiletto shoe, which rests on a tall, thin, spike heel, is commonly regarded as the "Wonderbra of the feet." "Stiletto" is the Italian word for a knife with a narrow blade, which was much favored by Renaissance assassins.
• While Miuccia Prada’s trademark is her square-toed boots, she also reintroduced the classic slide and girlish Mary Jane and made Prada shoes fashion status symbols in the Eighties and Nineties.
• Sandals are one of the oldest shoes, worn by the ancient Greeks and Romans. They were also considered the perfect warm-weather shoe.
• Ferragamo, who also developed the cork wedge, created Greta Garbo’s flatheeled brogues (closed men’s shoes).
• Roger Vivier got the idea for platforms from orthopedic shoes used for medical purposes.
• Doc Martens are the most famous boots of all time. Created by a German, Dr. Klaus Maertens, they were the favored shoe of anti-fashion punks and neofascists in the ’80s, before mainstream fashion followers adopted them, too.
• While the sneaker was developed as far back as the 1800s, it only changed the face of footwear in the 1970s, when the first Nike soccer shoe was released. Its famous sole of ribbed squares that gripped the ground had been developed at home when co-founder Bill Bowerman heated rubber in a waffle iron.
The book A Century of Style: Shoes is available at National Book Stores. And the shoes? Well, you know where to look for those.