The Art of the Shoe

Abandoning a French look on the subject, Mrs. Bossan, the author, develops her study with a dichotomous vision: that of time that touches the history of mankind and that of geography and sociology, which lead to an almost ethnographic analysis. The author dissects the shoe and all that surrounds it: from its history to painting and literature. After this book, it will be difficult to publish a book with a more complete treatment of the subject. Illustrated with an iconography that is exceptional both for its aestheticism and the pieces chosen, this book is a reference for historians, sociologists and for the fashion victims and designers...

Échantillon de lecture

2. Aviator Boots, c. 1914, France.

Introduction
The Shoe: Object of Civilization and Object of Art

Aside from noticing a shoe for its comfort or elegance, contemporaries rarely take interest in this necessary object of daily life. However, the shoe is considerable in the history of civilization and art.

In losing contact with nature, we have lost sight of the shoe's profound significance. In recapturing this contact, in particular through sports, we begin its rediscovery. Shoes for skiing, hiking, hunting, football, tennis or horseriding are carefully chosen, indispensable tools as well as revealing signs of occupation or taste.

In previous centuries, when people depended more on the climate, vegetation and condition of the soil, while most jobs involved physical labour, the shoe held an importance for everyone which today it holds for very few. We do not wear the same shoes in snow as in the tropics, in the forest as in the steppe, in the swamps as in the mountains or when working, hunting or fishing. For this reason, shoes give precious indications of habitats and modes of life.

In strongly hierarchical societies, organized by castes or orders, clothing was determinant. Princes, bourgeoisie, soldiers, clergy and servers were differentiated by what they wore.