From Head to Toe: Bound Feet, Bathing Suits, and Other Bizarre and Beautiful Things

Shortlisted for the Rocky Mountain Book Award

Included on VOYA’s ninth annual Nonfiction Honor List

Named Notable Book by the International Reading Association’s Children’s Book Award in the intermediate nonfiction category


Did you know that:
• in some parts of sixteenth-century Europe, men wore their beards so long that they had to wrap the ends around their waists like a belt to be able to walk?
• the high heel shoe caught on because it was the perfect solution to the problem of hopelessly muddy and waste-filled streets in cities like London and Paris?
• women have, at various times, used soot, ground ants’ eggs, beet juice, and poisonous lead as makeup?

Throughout history we have bound our feet until they broke, piled our necks with jewelry until our chests collapsed, cinched our waists in corsets until we couldn’t breathe. Why do we do these things to ourselves?

From Head to Toe travels across thousands of years and through countless cultures and countries to explore the story of fashion in its weirdest, wildest, and most wonderful forms.

Whimsical illustrations, sidebars, “quick hit” margin quips, and a useful index round out this fun-filled tour of fashion history.

Janice Weaver has been working with books all her life – first as an editor, and now as a writer. Her first book, Building America, allowed her to pursue a life-long love of architecture. In From Head to Toe, she indulges her passion for outlandish fashion trends, though she herself wears comfortable, sensible shoes. Janice Weaver lives in Toronto.

Francis Blake has been an illustrator for as long as he can remember and his artwork appears in magazines, books, and advertising campaigns across North America, Europe, and the Far East. His original paintings and drawings are in private collections as far apart as Melbourne, Toronto, and Wigan. Francis Blake lives in London, England with an increasingly demanding and occasionally very bad-tempered cat called Sufi.