Stiletto spells sex. Nothing else creates an erotically taut, arched foot or an overall come-hither silhouette quite like the stiletto heel.This exquisite book uncovers the compelling lure of the needle heel. 
A highly charged symbol, the stiletto suggests a multitude of contradictions - it can be elegant, vulgar, submissive, aggressive, subversive, conventional. The stiletto is phallic but supremely female, it makes the wearer at once vulnerable and in control. Six decades have seen the stiletto in vogue around the world with an ever-changing, kaleidoscopic clientele of classic ladies, Hollywood stars, fetishists, punks, princesses, power- dressers, cross-dressers, A-list celebrities, and the girl next door. For the first time, Stiletto attempts to uncover the compelling lure of the needle heel. 
Caroline Cox presents the various incarnations of the stiletto since its invention as a fantasy shoe brought to life by the flair and skill of shoemakers Vivier, Perugia, Ferragamo, and Jourdan in the early 1950s. Assertively modern, stilettos released women from the utilitarian wartime fashion of the 1940s, offering streamlined sophistication and glamour to women the world over. As the decade progressed the heel became saucier and higher, worn by starlets like Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. By the end of the 1950s the heel was being worn by “bad girls” and had become a weapon of female power. The 1970s took the stiletto’s associations with sex and death and turned it into a fetish object, eulogized by artists Allen Jones and Eric Stanton. 1980s power dressers brought the stiletto back into the fashion arena, and today heels designed by Manolo Blahnik, Christian Louboutin, Jimmy Choo, and Gina are the badge of celebrity status and fashion savvy. 
This exciting new book by an international fashion authority presents the story of the stiletto for the first time, illustrated with new and vintage photography to explore the stiletto’s long relationship with sex, power femininity, fashion, and fetishism.

Stiletto

Arts & Photography

Cox, Caroline

Graphic Design

Harper

Seduction is the first book to explore the sensual style of the seductress, from Marie Antoinette and Madame de Pompadour in pre-revolutionary France, through the screen queens of 1930s Hollywood, such as Jean Harlow and Marlene Dietrich, to the contemporary sex sirens of today, Madonna and Jennifer Lopez.
In chronological, themed chapters, international fashion authority, Caroline Cox explores the art of seduction, examining the many ways in which women have used their environment, clothes, and behavior to create a seductive allure. The lively and authoritative text is accompanied by gorgeous new and vintage images. Seduction is a visual feast and a fascinating study of the development of a woman's means of sedecution throughout the centuries.

Seduction: A Celebration of Sensual Style

Harper Design

The handbag has never been more important in fashion than it is today. Whether Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, or Chanel, the It bag of the season is a much-coveted designer item that indicates supreme style cachet—and for which the fashion-minded do not hesitate to spend.
In this lush volume, filled with a range of rich historical and contemporary images, fashion authority Caroline Cox explores the history of this must-have accessory, beginning with its development in the nineteenth century with the reticule—essentially a pocket with a handle—to the slouchy, greatly oversized bags popular today. In six chapters, each devoted to a decade, Cox not only highlights the most noteworthy bags in fashion design, but looks at their evolution within the social context of the day. Featured bags include Vuitton's revolutionary Noe bag for the female traveler, Art Deco clutch bags molded in Bakelite, the Hermès Kelly bag endorsed by Princess Grace of Monaco in the 1950s, and the It bag of the moment, the Marc Jacobs Stam. This book is a fascinating history of handbag design examined within the context of changing society and women's roles in it.
Filled with a collection of important handbags, diverse imagery, and a fun, informative text, this beautifully designed volume is a must-have for handbag aficionados and lovers of fashion alike.

The Handbag: An Illustrated History

Caroline Cox takes fashion lovers on an exquisite journey through the most stylish footwear of the twentieth century. Vintage Shoes illuminates the crucial designers, key technical breakthroughs, and varied cultural influences that have shaped shoe fashion for the last hundred years—from André Perugia’s designs for society women in the 1920s to the Christian Louboutin red-soled shoes favored by celebrities today, and including designs by Salvatore Ferragamo, Charles Jourdan, Roger Vivier, Beth Levine, Vivienne Westwood, Manolo Blahnik, and others. Lavish fashion photography, specially commissioned photographs of rare period footwear, and a unique shopping guide—with tips on sourcing and caring for articles of vintage fashion—help make Vintage Shoes an unforgettable tour through a dazzling corner of haute couture history.

Vintage Shoes: Collecting and Wearing Twentieth-Century Designer Footwear

From international fashion history authority Caroline Cox comes How to Be Adored: the girl’s guide to Hollywood glamour, and a how-to handbook for living a glamorous life! Including fabulous, usable advice from some of the most beautiful, successful, and seductive women in history—from Jackie O and Princess Diana to Gweneth Paltrow and Carla Bruni—How to Be Adored is a wonderful celebration of glamour and the art of being adored.

How to Be Adored: A Girl's Guide to Hollywood Glamour

Vintage Shoes

Caroline Cox takes fashion lovers on an exquisite journey through the most stylish footwear of the twentieth century. Vintage Shoes illuminates the crucial designers, key technical breakthroughs, and varied cultural influences that have shaped shoe fashion for the last hundred years—from André Perugia’s designs for society women in the 1920s to the Christian Louboutin red-soled shoes favored by celebrities today, and including designs by Salvatore Ferragamo, Charles Jourdan, Roger Vivier, Beth Levine, Vivienne Westwood, Manolo Blahnik, and others. Lavish fashion photography, specially commissioned photographs of rare period footwear, and a unique shopping guide—with tips on sourcing and caring for articles of vintage fashion—help make Vintage Shoes an unforgettable tour through a dazzling corner of haute couture history.

History & Criticism

The World Atlas of Street Fashion

Yale University Press

An extensively researched and generously illustrated volume offering a striking and diverse portrait of street style in cities and cultures around the world Since the early 20th century, city sidewalks have become runways where idiosyncratic modes of dressing are presented, consumed, and exported. Their messages include resistance, solidarity, subversion, social transformation, or musical affiliation, and a group of like-minded individuals can create a powerful sartorial force. Organized by continent and with 600 color images, The World Atlas of Street Fashion examines street style in all its global diversity. The book shows how Punk’s generic language of anarchy is redeployed in London, Berlin, Tokyo, or Jakarta and takes on the unique flavor of each. It also reveals how street style can be overtly political: the Sapeurs of Kinshasa use elegance to reframe themselves as gentlemen, and the cholo gangs of East Los Angeles took strength from the Chicano movement of the 1960s. Street style can also be obsessive, as seen here through the K-Pop enthusiasts of Seoul, who inhabit the lives of their music idols by re-creating publicity stills through elaborate cosplay. The author discusses how such scenes can develop cachet by being underground, fostering a look’s distinctiveness and integrity. Through its extensive research, striking photography, and handsome design, World Atlas of Street Fashion is the essential resource on world street style.

The author explores the wild and often entertaining world of women's lingerie, from Victorian-era corsets to the sleek designs of Victoria's Secret.

Lingerie: A Lexicon of Style

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Thomas Dunne Books

The stiletto is a style icon of the 20th and 21st centuries. Its seductive power has attracted a kalaeidoscope of women from Italian and Hollywood starlets Gina Lollobrigida and Marilyn Monroe to fetishists, punks, powerful business women, and sassy glamour celebrities - Madonna, J. Lo, and the Sex and the City girls. The stiletto has also attracted the world's greatest designers, from Vivier, Perugia, and Ferragamo in the 1950s to Vivienne Westwood and Terry de Havilland in the 1970s, and the must-have designer labels of today - Jimmy Choo, Manolo Blahnik, Gina, and Christian Louboutin. Stiletto is a fun, comprehensive, and insightful homage to the stiletto and its long relationship with sex, power, femininity, fashion, and fetishism.

Bounty Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cox, Caroline. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Cox, Caroline

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cox, Caroline. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Stiletto

Seduction: A Celebration of Sensual Style

The Handbag: An Illustrated History

Vintage Shoes: Collecting and Wearing Twentieth-Century Designer Footwear

How to Be Adored: A Girl's Guide to Hollywood Glamour

Vintage Shoes

The World Atlas of Street Fashion

The World Atlas of Street Fashion

Lingerie: A Lexicon of Style

Stiletto