Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

2,000 shoes from 20 centuries - the ultimate sourcebook for shoe enthusiasts.

Here, in over 2,000 specially drawn illustrations, reproduced in meticulous detail and full colour, 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 from Antiquity to the present day. 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.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

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. (Jun) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

John Peacock was Senior Costume Designer for BBC Television for many years. His many books include The Complete Fashion Sourcebook; Costume: 1066 to the Present; The Chronicle of Western Costume; Twentieth-Century Fashion; Fashion Since 1900; Fashion Accessories; Shoes; Men's Fashion; Twentieth-Century Jewelry ; and many others.