The high-heeled shoe once condemned as a fashion requirement designed to hobble the wearer has come roaring back into popularity by proclaiming its identity as a fetish item projecting self-assurance and sensual allure. This gorgeously illustrated celebration of high heels features dramatic and unabashedly erotic images from photographers like Vanessa Beecroft Guy Bourdin Steven Klein David Lachapelle Marilyn Minter Bettina Rheims Tim Walker and Ellen von Unwerth as well as interviews with Manolo Blahnik and Nicholas Kirkwood. Here too are Valerie Steele on the industry forces behind high-heel design Philip Delamore describing the technological developments of extreme contours and Stella Bruzzi on high heels gender and representation in film.