Stiletto (Hardcover)

~ Caroline Cox (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Stiletto spells sex. Nothing else creates an erotically taut, arched foot or an overall come-hither silhouette quite like the stiletto heel.This exquisite book uncovers the compelling lure of the needle heel.

A highly charged symbol, the stiletto suggests a multitude of contradictions - it can be elegant, vulgar, submissive, aggressive, subversive, conventional. The stiletto is phallic but supremely female, it makes the wearer at once vulnerable and in control. Six decades have seen the stiletto in vogue around the world with an ever-changing, kaleidoscopic clientele of classic ladies, Hollywood stars, fetishists, punks, princesses, power- dressers, cross-dressers, A-list celebrities, and the girl next door. For the first time, Stiletto attempts to uncover the compelling lure of the needle heel.

Caroline Cox presents the various incarnations of the stiletto since its invention as a fantasy shoe brought to life by the flair and skill of shoemakers Vivier, Perugia, Ferragamo, and Jourdan in the early 1950s. Assertively modern, stilettos released women from the utilitarian wartime fashion of the 1940s, offering streamlined sophistication and glamour to women the world over. As the decade progressed the heel became saucier and higher, worn by starlets like Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. By the end of the 1950s the heel was being worn by #147;bad girls#148; and had become a weapon of female power. The 1970s took the stiletto#146;s associations with sex and death and turned it into a fetish object, eulogized by artists Allen Jones and Eric Stanton. 1980s power dressers brought the stiletto back into the fashion arena, and today heels designed by Manolo Blahnik, Christian Louboutin, Jimmy Choo, and Gina are the badge of celebrity status and fashion savvy.

This exciting new book by an international fashion authority presents the story of the stiletto for the first time, illustrated with new and vintage photography to explore the stiletto#146;s long relationship with sex, power femininity, fashion, and fetishism.

About the Author

Caroline Cox is an international authority on fashion history whose work explores the relationship between fashion, beauty, and culture. She works as a Cultural Trends Advisor for Vidal Sassoon#146;s Advanced Academy and lectures and broadcasts throughout the world. She is the author of many books on fashion history including Lingerie: A Lexicon of Style.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Collins Design (November 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060748133
• ISBN-13: 978-0060748135
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 8.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #466,444 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One step beyond, December 9, 2004

By	Caroline Cattini (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This is a beautiful, smart, and fun book. I have never been a shoe fanatic and was at first skeptical when I received this book as a present, but I was pleasantly surprised as soon as I opened the cover. I loved all the history, whimsy, and gorgeous illustrations found in this book. This is a great one to give as a gift and will add a stylish touch to every library. Anyone with even the slightest interest in fashion, cultural history, or designer footwear will go crazy for STILETTO.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous, Fantastic High Heels , June 27, 2007

By	Louise Kathryn Shea "Louise" (Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews

For anyone interested in sexual iconography or the history of fashion this book is a must-have for the library. Stiletto high-heeled shoes, much maligned and disdained by afficionados of banality and practicality and anxious medicos who specialize in feet, have outlived and survived all critical attacks meant to make them go away and have a continuing allure despite the fact that it takes practice and balance and mindfulness to walk gracefully in a pair of these lovely, sculptured shoes which are the sexiest footwear ever created. There is even a series of exercises designed for actresses and models to strengthen the feet and legs to make wearing stilleto heels more comfortable and, hence, more fun. And this fine book by Carolyn Cox explains what all the fuss and bother is about and why anyone in her right mind would want to wear a pair of stiletto heels. The large format allows for excellent photographic coverage as well as historic images from the 1950's and 1960's when stilleto high heels, first fashioned in embryonic form by Roger Vivier for Christian Dior, and then further elaborated into the thin, elegant spike we know today, came into their own as a staple of high fashion as enduring as Chanel's "Little Black Dress" which, like a pair of stiletto heels matched with a business suit or an evening dress or a blouse and skirt -- especially a pencil skirt -- is never not elegant. Stiletto heels are pre-eminently feminine and, once you've learned how to walk in them, pre-eminently exciting to wear. Their distinctive click-click on a hardwood or linoleum floor is music to a fashionista's ears. They elongate the legs like no other shoe on Earth, raise the wearer above her customary level of vision and, when worn by someone who truly loves them and is at home in them, radiate a sense of majesty and self-possession and power and sexual self-awareness and just a hint of danger which is elegant, crisp, business-like, decisive, distinctively powerful and the very opposite of obscene or tawdry or clownish or dull or wishy-washy. This is the best book I know of for the reader who wants to immerse herself (or himself) in the history, development, cultural and psychological significance, construction techniques and aesthetic principles of stiletto heels. Once you've read it you'll understand why this shoe design, which seems at first so counter-intuitive as something to walk in, has such a lasting appeal for millions of women world-wide. And you may also come to realize that a well-made pair of stiletto heels is a thing of beauty in itself, formal and geometrically pure in linear design, softly curved and bitingly sharp at the same time, still but poised by shape alone for motion, a delight for the sense of sight, which they can easily saturate. Perhaps the final reason for the lasting appeal and enduring love of stiletto high heels is the reason given by John Keats: "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars intelligent, forward thinking and well researched, December 5, 2004

By	K. Siddiqui (uk) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is an intelligent historical analysis of the stiletto heel, one of the best of its kind. Its insight into cultural history and psychology is profound. The mass of pictures and illustrations work perfectly with the text. It is ideal for students of fashion and cultural history plus anyone interested in making statements with their clothes.