These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ A
merican designer Beth Levine is widely credited as the first person to introduce boots into Haute Couture. As early as 1953, Beth Levine introduced under the Herbert Levine label a calf-length boot in white kidskin, which sold poorly. Most retailers saw boots as a separate category of footwear from shoes, to be worn for protection from bad weather or for work. By contrast, Levine argued that boots were shoes and could be an integral part of a woman’s outfit. In 1957, Herbert Levine produced an entire collection of based around fashion boots, and despite widespread skepticism on the part of other designers and manufacturers, calf-high, kitten-heeled fashion boots for women began to grow in popularity in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1962 Balenciaga’s fall collection featured a tall boot by Mancini that just covered the knee; the following year Yves Saint Laurent’s couture collection included thighlength alligator skin boots by designer Roger Vivier and Vogue was able to announce that boots of all lengths were the look of the moment. The re-emergence of boots as a fashion item in the 1960s has been interpreted as an antidote to the femininity of Dior’s post war “New Look”.
Rising hemlines and the availability of new, brightly colored artificial materials such as PVC, combined to make boots an attractive fashion option for younger women. In 1965 André Courrèges released the first of his iconic white leather calf-length boots and designers such as Mary Quant, who launched her own ‘Quant Afoot’ line of footwear in 1967, produced inexpensive, machine-molded plastic boots in a variety of different colors to be worn in tandem with mini-skirts. The rising price of leather during the 1960s made these plastic and vinyl boots a popular alternative to more traditional footwear. As skirts became even shorter in the late 1960s, there was a resurgence of interest in thighlength boots or cuissardes. Pierre Cardin featured shiny black PVC thighboots as part of his futuristic 1968 couture collection and Beth Levine designed seamless, stretch vinyl and nylon stocking boots tall enough to do double duty as hosiery. The tallest boots from this period were so high that they were equipped with suspenders to hold them up. High laced boots, similar to those worn in Edwardian times, were also popular.
Praise The Miniskirt A miniskirt (sometimes hyphenated as “mini-skirt”) is a skirt with a hemline well above the knees, generally halfway up the thighs – normally no longer than 10 cm (4 in) below the buttocks; and a minidress is a dress with such a hemline. A micro-miniskirt or microskirt is a miniskirt with its
10 The Ocean Beach Chronicle
hemline at the upper thigh, at or just below crotch level; and short shorts--often better known as hot pants and “Daisy Dukes”--are women’s shorts with leg hemlines at the upper thigh. The popularity of miniskirts peaked in the “Swinging Lon-
don” of the 1960s, but its popularity is since still commonplace among many women, mostly teenagers, preteens, and young adults. Before that time, short skirts were only seen in sport clothing, such as skirts worn by female tennis players, figure skaters, and cheerleaders.
Seven square miles surrounded by Reality