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December 21, 2014

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Funky, sexy insight into high heels

SHAKESPEARE mentions high heels in “Hamlet,” former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised them and fashion designers from Dior to Manolo Blahnik have bewitched women and men with their versions. “Killer Heels” is a luxurious, fun and sexy look at the history of high heels, and it manages to be eye candy and thought-provoking, too. It’s on shelves for the holiday shopping season.

Based on an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, the book contains several essays and more than 100 luxurious illustrations that trace the history of heels from ancient Greece and Turkey to the modern streets of New York and Paris. Greek actors used thick-soled cork shoes for greater visibility onstage, and during the Ottoman Empire women used a type of clog for slick bathhouse floors. That supposedly inspired the chopine of 16th-century Venice, and one delicately embroidered pair from that era shown in the book could still attract attention at a party today.

The book is dominated by pictures of heels from the last 100 years, and designer Pierre Hardy notes a common theme there: “People love a high heel because it is not natural. It is a cultural object connected with seduction, power and sexuality.”

A pair of Salvatore Ferragamo heels from 1938 is like a happy, colored layer cake for feet, while the Rapaport Brothers’ Satellite Jumping Shoes from 1955 has a pair of springs, presumably to launch the wearer even higher.

“Killer Heels” is bound to please any fashionista, but men who take a peek inside may also find the answer to an old question: The book definitively explains why women need so many shoes.




 

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