Shoe: Contemporary Footwear by Inspiring Designers

From stilettoes to brogues, satin to snakeskin, succumb to the overwhelmingly seductive quality of master shoemaking. Shoes have always possessed a remarkable power to provoke emotional, even obsessive connection but today a new generation of creative talent is developing innovative and beruatiful design concepts, making these exciting times for footwear aficionados. Olivier Dupon invites you to succumb to the overwhelmingly seductive quality of master shoemaking.


Review from the Virtual Shoe Museum
As a shoe (book) collector I was very happy to find this shoe book that stands out in the large pile of published shoe books. It’s well written and clearly composed with a passion for shoes, and the selected designers clarify their view on design. There’s a nice diversity of the sketches that’s alternated with high quality photographs in a wide variety, also showing beautiful details of the shoes. Most of the included shoes are well crafted and wearable. I also discovered some new shoe designers, which doesn’t happen too often. Of course there are more shoe designers who would have fit in this book as well, which makes me long for a Part II. I can really recommend this large shoe book. It’s the perfect coffee table shoe book, that shows many passionate talent and it sure is a great X-mas present.

About the book
Imaginatively designed and featuring 500 colour photographs, ‘Shoe: Contemporary Footwear by Inspiring Designers’ showcases a huge range of footwear designs in a dynamic book layout. Dupon profiles thirty-two of the finest shoe designers working worldwide today, offering details of backgrounds and training, tips on setting up in business, highlights of working practices, key sources of inspiration, and thoughts on craft and creativity. A huge range of footwear designs is on show, from stilettoes in iridescent snakeskin, classic Oxford brogues in brown suede and ankle boots in satin and kangaroo skin to sneakers with Swarovski crystal details and high-rise boots with platform soles in the form of crouching panthers (custom-designed for Madonna).

Shoe features an original mix of international designers, both established names such as Gio Diev, Rupert Sanderson, Tabitha Simmons and Sophia Webster, as well as up-and-coming talent. With page after page of glorious finished designs, portraits of the designers, sketches, swatches, early samples and coordinating accessories as well as inspirational shots of boutiques and studios, Shoe is as luxurious and seductive as the objects of desire captured within its pages and an essential volume for shoe obsessives, fashion fans and aficionados of artisan craft and design.

About the author
Olivier Dupon is a twenty-first century tastemaker and author of The New Artisans, Encore!: The New Artisans, The New Jewelers, The New Pâtissiers and Floral Contemporary. He began his career at Christian Dior and expanded his expertise in the fields of fashion and lifestyle by working as a buyer and product manager for several large retail companies before opening his own boutique in Australia. Now based in London, he scouts international markets in search of design, art and craft objects to feature in his editorial projects.

Publisher Thames & Hudson.
ISBN 9780500517918

Publication date: 28 September 2015
Price: £24.95
Extent: 256 pp
Size: 34.5 x 26 cm
Illustrations: over 500 illustrations
Hardback

Shoe ‘MILO II’ by Gio Diev.