Customer Reviews

New Shoes: Contemporary Footwear Design

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Yes, I own more pairs of shoes than I can admit to. Yes, I have found myself short on rent, sacrificed for a pair of shoes. So, of course, any book that has to do with shoes is already a winner in my book.

You can find hundreds of books on shoes, what makes this one different is that it is an introduction to the ground-breaking and stunning world of contemporary footwear. Hundreds of full page, glossy pictures, of modern shoes from designers like Benoit Meleard and his heel-less, modern-art designs to Nicholas Kirkwood and his futuristic beauties leap out of the page at you. There are fashion-spread type layouts, like the image of a Pierre Hardy suede and glace kid striped wedge in a field of balloons and then there are plain white pages of shoes, accompanied by the designers drawings, all prefaced with a description of biography of the artists.

More than just shoe-porn, New Shoes introduces you to the future, to boxy designs that look more purse than shoe, booties made from delicate folds of leather and sandals of hard plastic twisted to resemble furniture. This book is essential for any shoe lover, from the Louboutin lover to the classic Chuck gal.

I didn't think that this book would be so useful for me as i'm a shoe designer myself. But there are 25 different designers from all over the world with their stories. Where they live, what education they got, their phlosophy and what they do right now. The photos of the shoes are big, colorful and very nicely shot. And most important of all it's very inspiring because they're not at all ordinary. So i would recommend this book especially to shoe designers/students, fashion designers/students and to people who love different kinds of shoes.

I expected this book to be full of the highest-heeled shoes, like what you see on today's runways, but it was not. A lot of the designs were simple simple simple, not cutting edge. Only about 3 designers had completely avante guard designs. I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of consistency with the pictures. Some designers had 5 pages dedicated to their shoes, while others had 2. I just expected their to be more designs, more inspiration.

All of the prior reviewers that raved about the book must have received their copy from a different printing than mine, because none mentioned that the font is ONLY a size 6 throughout; which, makes it almost unreadable. I guess if you just like looking at pretty shoe pictures, and the occasional sketch, then you might enjoy the book. But if you actually like to read, the requirements for this book are: a stronger than average desire, major dedication to muddling through the text, and a high-powered magnifying glass. Readers . . . beware.

Love this book - it's fantastic. Very few repeated shoes from other books. Beautiful, and great gift for shoe lovers!

The book is great, arrived quickly and I am displaying it prominently on my coffee table so everyone can see!