Boots Are Made For Walkin
Boots Are Made For WalkinBy Susan Graham
The Beginnings A fashion boot is a boot worn for reasons of
style or fashion (rather than for utilitarian purposes e.g. not
hiking boots, riding boots, rain boots, etc.). The term is usually
applied to womens boots. Fashion boots come in a wide variety of
styles, from ankle to thigh-length, and are used for casual,
formal, and business attire. Although boots were a popular style of
womens footwear in the Nineteenth Century, they were not recognized
as a high fashion item until the 1960s. They became widely popular
in the 1970s and have remained a staple of womens winter wardrobes
since then.But however not just the chicks like wearing the Boots
so do the guys
Pre-1960sIn the 19th and early 20th Centuries, ankle and
calf-length boots were common footwear for women. Rising hemlines
made longer styles of boots popular. In 1913, Denise Poiret, the
wife of celebrated French couturier Paul Poiret, caused a sensation
in Paris and New York by wearing knee-length boots in wrinkled
Morocco leather. Designed by her husband, made by the bottier
Favereau, and styled with a low heel and a square toe, she had
versions in red, white, green, and yellow. By 1915 the New York
Times was reporting that, inspired by Mme Poiret, women had adopted
these "Russian boots" as an acceptable alternative to baring ankles
and calves. By the 1920s Russian boots were available in a variety
of styles, calf- or knee-length, with a Cuban or Louis heel, which
could be pull-on, or zip-fastened for a closer fit. Worn with
knee-length skirts, they often featured decorative features such as
elaborate stitching or fur trims.
The Rise of Go-go boots Go-go boots are a low-heeled style of
women's fashion boot first introduced in the mid-1960s. The
original go-go boots, as defined by Andr Courrges in 1964, were
white, low-heeled, and mid-calf in height, a specific style which
is sometimes called the Courrges boot. Since then, the term go-go
boot has come to include the knee-high, square-toed boots with
block heels that were very popular in the 1960s and 1970s; as well
as a number of variations including kitten heeled versions and
colors other than white.
Fashion boots were revived in the early 1960s by designers such
as Beth Levine, although at first they featured fashionable high
heels such as the stiletto and kitten heels. The earliest go-go
boots were mid-calf, white and flat-heeled, as seen in the work of
the designer Andr Courrges, who is often credited with creating the
style. The simple minimalism of the Courrges boot was easily and
widely reproduced for the mass market. Courrges boots provided the
foundation for the development of the go-go boot, which
increasingly came higher up the leg and was made in alternative
colors. While remaining low-ish, the heel also became higher and
chunkier. The earliest Courrges boots were made of leather, such as
kidskin or patent leather, but many of the subsequent versions and
copies were made in PVC, vinyl, and other plastics.
In 1966, the song "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" was
released and performed by a go-go boot wearing Nancy Sinatra, who
is credited with further popularizing the boot. Tim Gunn suggests
that Sinatra helped establish the boot as "a symbol of female
power. Female dancers on the television shows Hullabaloo and
Shindig! also wore the short, white boots. This led to the boots
sometimes being called 'hullabaloo boots,' as in an advertisement
run in American newspapers in January 1966 for hullabaloo boots
with "kooky heels and zipper backs" for the "Go-Go Getter."
1970s and 1980sAlthough fashion boots and particularly 'go-go
boots' are often described as 'typical' of 1960s fashion, it wasn't
until the 1970s that boots became a mainstream fashion staple for
women; for many women in the 1960s, boots were seen as 'a
superfluous accessory' more suitable for teenagers and college
girls than a grown woman while, in 1968, 75% of office managers
surveyed by the New York Times disapproved of their female staff
wearing boots to work. By contrast, in 1977, boots made up 20
percent of all women's shoe sales in the United States and the end
of the decade saw fashion boots occupying multiple pages of
mainstream mail-order catalogs by companies such as Sears, Wards,
and Kays.
The early 70s were typified by tight-fitting, vinyl boots rising
to the knee or higher. These sometimes had mock lacing on the front
and zipped up at the rear; they could be worn under the new maxi
dresses, which had slits in them to show the leg. In summer, pale,
high-legged boots in printed or open weave fabric were teamed with
summery dresses; these often had extensive cut-outs, so that they
were more like high-legged sandals than conventional boots.
Platform-soled style were also popular. The multi-colored suede and
canvas over-the-knee boots produced by the London store Biba were
so sought-after that queues would form outside the store when a
delivery was due. By the late 1970s, form-fitting, shaped-leg boots
were being replaced with straight-legged designs, frequently worn
over jeans or other pants, which were often pulled-on rather than
zip-fastened. of shorter, calf-length boots, often worn layered
with socks and tights, and a revival of interest in over-the-knee
and thigh-length boots, which were popularized by punk and new wave
performers such as Blondies Debbie Harry.
In contrast to the preceding decade, the 1980s saw a sharp
decline in the popularity of high-legged boots. Instead, ankle
boots in a variety of styles were particularly popular, as were
low-heeled, calf-length, pull-on styles. Knee length boots, if worn
at all, tended to be low-heeled, pull-on styles, sometimes referred
to as riding boots, that were combined with long skirts. In the
late 1980s, over-the-knee boots made a reappearance; these were
loose-fitting, low-heeled styles in suede, often brightly colored
or decorated with brocade. In 1990, Karl Lagerfeld included
thigh-length satin boots in his Fall/Winter Couture collection for
Chanel, using the boots as an alternative to leggings, but it wasnt
until the following decade that the inherent elegance of classic
dress boot styles was rediscovered
Boots Pioneers
Nancy SinatraBest known for her signature classic These Boots
Are Made for Walkin
Goldie Hawn one of the best actresses of all time.
Boots Pioneers
Not only the chicks are the pioneers of the bootsTheres one guy
who also had the style for the suede boots.Sammy Davis, Jr.
(1925-1990) gave the boys a chance to walk the suede boots. Just as
the go-go boots was on the rise for the girls in the 1960s the
suede boots for the guys was also on top especially the color black
suede boots
Boots 1990s and Beyond
Boots of the 1990s were also popularized among them the Kinky
Boots and wedge heel boots are the tops to this day.
The Anthem50 years ago Nancy Sinatra released the song that will
changed the style of fashion forever with her signature song These
Boots Are Made For Walkin in 1966.Country Pop singer Lynn Anderson
(who passed away in 2015) covered the song on the Lawrence Welk
Show with a groovy Country Pop feel to it.
If you dont want to get stepped on
For the last five decades boots has made a huge difference for
both the guys and the girls with one statement These boots are made
for walkinAnd that's just what they'll doOne of these days these
bootsAre gonna walk all over you
