HIGH-HEEL HEAVEN with Peter McNeil

Shoes convey a wide range of meanings associated with fashion, style, personality, sexuality, class and gender. New studies have given us awareness of the personal, social and sexual connotations attributed to footwear and created by footwear. Different shapes and colours for men’s and women’s shoes today revolve primarily around the construction of gender difference. Many of these gendered distinctions developed in the so-called ‘long 18th century’. Why do men and women’s shoes look so very different today? Learn about shoes, mobility and history, from Renaissance platform chopines to Sex and the City ‘limousine’ shoes.

DR PETER MCNEIL is Professor of Design History at University of Technology Sydney and Foundation Professor of Fashion Studies at Stockholm University, Sweden.

He is the author of numerous publications including ten works on fashion, including the best-selling Shoes, also translated into Italian (with G, Riello 2006; 2011). Current book projects include the ‘long’ history of luxury, supported by the Leverhulme Trust, United Kingdom and fashion writing from the 17th century to the present day.

This lecture is generously supported by The Friends of The Johnston Collection

Read about Peter McNeil’s other lecture Fashion & Art below