Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I happened upon this book in the bookstore, and also recently saw it mentioned in Harper's Bazar. All they say is that it is a "comprehensive history of footware." What they fail to mention is that all the pictures are illustrations. There is not one single color photograph of an original shoe. If you check the product description above that Amazon provides, it does tell you that it has illustrations, but many people don't know to look there.
While the drawings are nicely done, they didn't give me the same thrill that seeing an actual photo of an original shoe would have. The pictures on the cover are exactly the same type of drawing and the same type of composition that you will see of other shoes in the book. I can understand having drawings of shoes from hundreds of years ago, but not having any photos of modern shoes seems a cop out.
The book is informative, but I think it is in no way "complete." It gives an overview of shoes from different eras, but does not scratch much beyond the surface. So, you get a little of everything and some representative pictures of the average footware, but not a good sense of what might be unique about a particular time period beyond what you can see for yourself in the illustrations.
I've read other books on fashion history that do a better job than this book in covering a wide range of time periods (such as Decades of Beauty). However, these books did not contain only shoes. I have yet to find a book about shoes that has both good photographs and informative text.
So, due to lack of competition, some people may want to check this book out because there isn't anything else out there. But, I would not reccomend buying it sight unseen. I think that this book would be too elementary for a fashion historan or someone into the history of shoes, but too boring for the average person to want to buy. I definitely would not recommend it for someone with a shoe fetish. It was worth the time I spent looking through it at the bookstore because of some of the text, but mostly because of the lack of photos I did not buy it.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Shoes: The Complete Sourcebook
Here, in over 2,000 specially drawn illustrations, is the most comprehensive and detailed history and sourcebook of shoes ever published. John Peacock charts the development of every kind and style of footwear for both men and women from earliest times to the present day. Reproduced in meticulous detail and full colour is a host of representative examples of footwear: the simple sandals of ancient Egypt, made from natural fibres and held onto the foot with narrow thongs; the embroidered and bejewelled shoes of the Byzantine empire; the fantastic pike-toed boots newly fashionable in the fourteenth century; the hugely exaggerated platform heels of the sixteenth century; eighteenth-century silk slippers; as well as a huge range of contemporary shoes, from brogues and baseball boots, stilettos and winklepickers, to today's fashion footwear in radical materials and experimental styles. Neatly arranged in six chronological sections, the pictures are accompanied by full descriptions, including details of all materials, heel and toe styles, decorations including embroidery and beading, and fastenings including buttons, laces and ribbons.An invaluable reference section includes an at-a-glance time chart showing the development of footwear through the ages, a concise bibliography, and biographies of the world's leading shoe designers and companies, including Salvatore Ferragamo, Charles Jourdan, Terry de Havilland and Manolo Blahnik.
Click here for more information about Shoes: The Complete Sourcebook
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