Description: Form and colour, fun and seduction, symbolism and materiality, these and again many others could be the "suggestive" value of footwear; each and every shoe, produced by the intense aesthetic taste behind the designs and projects for its conception and execution, is actually in itself a small masterpiece.

Having become, in the course of centuries, authentic objects of art, these provocative "objects of desire," charged with an intense erotic symbolism, blend elegance and comfort, beauty and technology, artisenal creativity and industrial manufacturing, tradition and modernity.

This original book by Paola Caovilla offers an exhaustive summary of the evolution of footwear from antiquity up to today; from ancient Egypt to the Roman period, from the first hide and leather workshops documented in Venice during the fourteenth century, to its transformation from object of everyday use to art artefact and essential accessory of contemporary fashion, through the vitality of the great Italian master shoemakers, who contributed to establishing Made in Italy throughout the world, and the advent of the leading stylists, from Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent, to Ferragamo, Valentino and Dior.

An interesting and extraordinary journey to discover this magic woman's accessory documented through old master paintings, photographs, ancient shoes and unique exemplars and prototypes.

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