Exploring footwear. An investigation into aesthetic, cultural and artistic influences on shoe design.
Shoe and hosiery links to reference and history resources, plus designers, hosiery manufacturers, and suppliers.
The wikipedia: shoes enty is disappointingly thin on detail. An opportunity here for me to become a wikipaedian perhaps.
international shoe size converter International Shoe Size Conversion Charts - useful for working out what size shoes to buy when making international purchases over the www. Lots of arcane shoe facts too.
University of the Arts London - includes the Historic Shoes CollectionUniversity of the Arts London various shoe and footwear learning resources inc the Historic Shoes Collection which consists of c.700 18th and 19th century shoes
Netherlands Shoe and Leather Museum The site is in Dutch, a language I am not familiar with, so can't comment on the content.
The Brockton Shoe Museum Billed as The only authentic shoe museum in America.
Newrock shoes designed and manufactured in Spain - rugged styles; highly original design.
Bronx shoes Excellent shoes, but the website is not very informative.
Schuh shoe retailer, England Highstreet UK alternative shoe store selling lots of original brands: Irregular Choice, Rocketdog, Newrock to name but a few. The website is excellent and there are always bargains to be found in the sale pages.
Jade Shoes, shoe retailer England.
Acupuncture present a navigation-friendly flash driven site. View the latest collection and buy online. Acupuncture are one of my favourite designers.
Xoxo shoes are part of this multi-product fashion business.
Patrick Cox Britain's Finest shoe designer presents a navigation-friendly flash driven site. Bonus: you can download hi resolution images of the shoe designs - needless to say I've downloaded the lot!
Swear Japanese punk inspired madcap designs. Tip: the website has special offers for as low as £15-00 GBP.
MorenatomExotic Brazilian shoe designers. Truly original!
Robert Clergerie of Paris. Upmarket high fashion designer.
Loake Shoes Traditional crafted Northamptonshire British mens shoes, Founded in 1880.
Grenson shoes Traditional crafted Northamptonshire British mens shoes. Crisp, well laid out website with a company history and fine quality images of the complete range of shoes produced. Founded in 1866.
Tricker's Shoes Traditional crafted Northamptonshire British mens shoes. Founded in 1829.
Men Big Shoes offer large size men's shoes, boots, sandals and athletic footwear for men in size 13, size 14, size 15, size 16, size 17, size 18 and larger. Featuring name brand shoes for big feet - Diesel, Pony, Kenneth Cole Reaction, Dr. Martens, Timberland, Ecco, Roces Inline Skates, Callaway Golf Shoes and more. This is an American store - their physical shop is in Texas as you would expect really - where everything is bigger! A valuable resource for men with big feet who can't find fashionable shoes that fit.
Shoewawa An excellent shoe review site. Worth visiting often.
High Heel Shoe Museum An online shoe museum offering commercial services, mainly catering for the fetish market.
E-Book: Hosiery Manufacture William Davis, Pitman & Sons, Ltd., London ; [1920] Cornell University's Mann Library host this 136 page e-book written in 1920. The book pages are captured as scanned image rather than OCR.
Cambridge County Geographies: Nottinghamshire: IndustriesShort history of hosiery manufacture in Notttinghamshire written in 1910
Hosiery and Knitwear Four Centuries of Small-Scale Industry in Britain, c. 1589-2000 by Stanley Chapman, Emeritus Professor of Business History, University of Nottingham; pubd Oxford University Press ISBN ISBN-10: 0-19-925567-9. Seminal reference work.
Hosiery manufacture in Leicestershire, England An oral history in the East Midlands Oral History Archive.
Hosiery manufacture in Ratby Leicestershire, England A short history of hosiery manufacture in a small Leicestershire village.
Curtin University of technology dept of podiatryA Comprehensive history of hosiery with a useful bibliography
Hosiery Technology CenterAssisting the hosiery industry to compete in a global environment through training, R and D, testing, E-commerce and new product development. The center has a physical presence in two major regions of North Carolina where hosiery manufacturing is centered...
wikipedia: nylons and wikipedia: stockings entries go into some detail on hosiery history and carry some interesting arcane facts.
Old Nylons: Vintage seamed full fashioned nylons Archive and e-commerce site specialising in vintage hosiery - lots of excellent photos of packeted vintage nylons.
Peakland Heritage: HosieryShort history of hosiery manufacture in the Peak District, Derbyshire, England.
German Hosiery Museum Currently virtual, though a physical museum is planned, says the wensite. Website a work in progress)
Pretty Polly Part of the Sara Lee Coutoulds group. I think they used to manufacture in Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire.
Touchable lingerie and hosiery, Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, England.
Charnos lingerie and hosiery are another local manufacturer - Derbyshire - and are a corporate designer, manufacturer and wholesaler of hosiery and lingerie. Their nylons are of a particularly fine weave and contribute to some of my best shoe photos - very well finished and elegant!
Jonathan Aston USAUS website of highly adventurous UK hosiery designer.
Silk Stockings LtdOne of two remaining manufacturer of silk stockings in the world. This site contains hosiery history pages and glossary of hosiery terms.
Wolsey Ltd, Leicester manufacturer of textiles, inc hosiery.
Hanes Hosiery Major US hosiery manufacturer. Part of the Sara Lee group of companies.
Old Nylons: Vintage seamed full fashioned nylons Archive and e-commerce site specialising in vintage hosiery - lots of excellent photos of packeted vintage nylons.
Falke German hosiery manufacturer, producer of some very exotic (and expensive) lines of hosiery.
WolfordHigh class very expensive hosiery.
Fogal Exotic high class Swiss hosiery. Website carries a concise history of the brand.
Trashy.com a US website, selling exotic lingerie, hosiery, panties, shoes, accessories, costumes, and intimate apparel that can be ordered online or via catalog. The website shows some of the products being modelled and presents a gallery of extensive adoption of products by celebrities.
All images and texts (unless otherwise stated) © Susan Graves 2000 - 2008