One thing I was reminded of while reading this book: I really need a new pair of classic black pumps.

First of all, Women from the Ankle Down: The Story of Shoes and How They Define Us by Rachelle Bergstein is really a book about women’s shoes. There are mentions of men’s shoes, but not many — let’s face it, men’s shoes are boring. Most of this book is about women’s shoes and how they evolved and what influenced them.

There is a lot of interesting information in this book about modern shoes. If you’re looking for ancient shoes, for the history of foot-binding, look somewhere else. This little book starts with “Ferragamo and the Wartime Wedge (1900-1938)” and runs through Sex and the City (“Shoes and the Single Girl (1998-2008)”). Lots of detail about how certain styles evolved and how shoes go in and out of style, along with some interesting bits of shoe lore.

I love shoes! Sadly, my work requires mostly sensible shoes now, but that doesn’t mean I don’t drool over the latest styles (although I cannot wait for the hooker-platform fad to pass — can’t happen soon enough). I enjoyed getting a bit of insight into what was fashionable and what was controversial in different generations (who would have thought of ballet flats as rebellious?). I also didn’t know that shoes were actually rationed during the war:

“As it was, the ration stipulated not only how many shoes consumers could buy but also what kind of shoes the footwear industry was permitted to produce going forward…For women, the shoe ration instantly outlawed flourishes which had become the quintessence of a varied shoe collection.”

The American government even limited the colors that could be used in shoe production to 4 — black, white, town brown and army russet. Heel heights were regulated and so were the height of boots.

Bergstein covers the rise of Birkenstocks, the influence of the movies on shoes (and vice versa) and Girl Power, Saturday Night Fever and the battle between Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo. What she doesn’t do is provide a single photograph! Unless photos were added in the finished version (mine was an uncorrected proof), I think it’s a huge gap. ( )

This history of (mainly) women’s shoes pretty much starts in 1900, the point in history when women’s skirts became short enough to show their shoes, and when the making of shoes changed from a craftsman’s job of creating one pair at a time to factories that made hundreds of pairs in a day. This lowered the price of shoes to the point where the average person could afford more than one pair of shoes, and shoe obsessions could begin.

The author intersperses biographies of famous shoemakers- Ferragamo, Choo, Blahnik, Louboutin- with tales of how war time rationing affected shoe designs and materials, how Hollywood influenced shoe design, how changes in society required different shoes, how Jane Fonda made athletic shoes acceptable as everyday wear by adults, and how different subcultures need different footwear. She also connects shoe height with both the economy and the status of the wearer.

It’s a fast, interesting read, combining fashion history with social history. I really enjoyed the book – I just wish the illustrations had been in the advanced reader copy! ( )