As we learn from Giorgio Riello's extravagantly illustrated new book, A Foot in the Past: Consumers, Producers, and Footwear in the Long Eighteenth Century, shoemakers (members of the Cordwainer's Company) were accorded the least respect of any of the tradesfolk in London. The same could be said of twenty-first-century scholars who study fashion. In his first chapter, “Stepping In: Fashion and Footwear,” Riello discusses how previous generations of fashion scholars have been segregated into two communities: the economic historians who viewed fashion as product and the “dress historians” who studied clothing artifacts from an aesthetic point of view. Riello is part of a new, interdisciplinary approach—“fashion studies”—which seeks to combine these two approaches and to extend their scope of inquiry through integration of previously unknown (or underused) archival material. Ultimately, Riello's aim is to consider the way that footwear was consumed, acquired, retailed, and produced within the broader context of contemporary social and cultural narratives.

Riello chooses to begin his consideration of footwear by looking at the ways in which shoes were consumed and marketed and only then turning his attention to their conditions of manufacture. Chapter 2, “Demand and Consumption,” presents a kaleidoscope of images and facts about footwear: James Boswell's annual shoe expenditure, the influence of the Napoleonic wars on the standardization of shoe sizing, and contemporary complaints about substandard slippers in British inns. Riello does not pull together all these bits of information into a single theory or observation, but he does give a sense of the complex interactions of factors as diverse as national pride, class, and “fashion” in determining the parameters of demand that shaped the shoe-making industry.

The third chapter, “Innovation and Tradition,” begins with a beautifully presented overview of some of the most influential recent work done on the themes of “body and space” in the long eighteenth century. After establishing this context, Riello proceeds to examine some specific examples of fashion innovation that reflect contemporary social or political ideals: the use of galoshes, the great laces versus buckles controversy, and the rise (and fall) of men's boots. This chapter made for fascinating reading, and the illustrations were particularly useful, but the overall effect was more titillating than satisfying. Riello states clearly that it is not his intention to provide a cultural or social analysis of footwear, but the line between “culture” and “context” is hazy, and his tendency to throw out interesting observations, such as the fact that in Paris in the 1780s “only pederasts were wearing laces” (76), without offering any substantial discussion of the gendering of footwear or the social performance of sexual identities is disappointing. These opening chapters, while incredibly rich in detail, are ultimately distinguished by the opportunities that they present for future work.

Riello's next chapter, “Shops and Shopping,” is more successful in creating a coherent narrative of cultural shift and marketing response. Here, Riello discusses how new forms of retailing, “fast-selling” markets for ready-made shoes, “slop shops” dealing in used goods, and large-scale wholesalers, existed alongside the traditional “bespoke” trade, rather than simply replacing it. The coexistence of complementary forms of retailing forced its participants to become more tightly focused on specialized sectors of the market and to use the new forms of advertising and retail presentation to claim a niche of the market as their own.

This theme of increasing complexity is further developed through Riello's next four chapters: “Artisans and Guilds,” “Manufacturing and Subcontracting,” “Continental Competition,” and “Towards Industrialization.” In this latter half of the book, Riello challenges the traditional view of the eighteenth century as the site of gradual, steady evolution from the medieval model of guild-controlled craftspeople to an early industrial model of production. Riello's thesis is that the shoe industry did not experience a linear progression toward industrialization but instead, in collaboration with its guild, explored new forms of production—particularly the use of subcontractors—which allowed it to continue as a diverse industry creating a wide range of products through much of the nineteenth century. In these meticulously researched chapters, Riello considers the impact of seasonal demand, consumer credit, the rise of provincial shoe manufacturing, competition from French shoemakers, and even the the changing shape of women's shoes on the business of shoe making. Although there are times when Riello's distinctions seem to me to be overly fine—for example, his insistence that subcontracting, piecework, and decentralized models of production should not be considered “proto-industrial”—his larger picture of the diverse and complicated development of the shoe-making industry is both compelling and enlightening.

In spite of a lack of coherence in the opening chapters, when viewed as a whole, A Foot in the Past is a fine example of the kind of wide-reaching revelations that the best kind of interdisciplinary work can produce. In this text, Riello demonstrates that a careful analysis of footwear has much to say about almost every aspect of society. For some, shoes are a reflection of individual or national identity; for others, they are a life's work. In the larger scope, shoes are an important industry, reflecting both Britain's status as a colonial power and its inconsistent journey into a (later than expected) modern age.