Womens Vintage Boots – Victorian To 70s
February 27, 2015The miniature and multitudinous buttons of Victorian Womens Vintage boots echo the rows of buttons on blouses and on the backs of dresses, tiny and shiny, impossible to get on or off without a maid wielding a shoe horn and buttonhook.The surviving boots themselves are so small that it’s unlikely you’ll get them on even with an army of maids, unless you’re particularly petite.
Vintage Boots for Women
Most Victorian Womens Vintage Boots are ankle height, with a small inch high heel and come in sensible black or brown, although the author Edmund de Waal recounts a story of a relative so rich that she kept a cobbler in her house, for the express purpose of producing an endless supply of the white kid boots she loved and presumably instantly ruined.
Womens Vintage Boots for theatrical performances were also produced in the standard shape but in lavender, pink, or with intricate embroideries.
Finely embroidered Victorian boots
Besides coloured Womens Vintage Boots being impractical, it wasn’t at all respectable to draw attention to your ankles for most women, though presumably if a woman was already on the stage she was considered a bit of a hussy so she could wear some exciting footwear if she felt like it.
Victorian-burlesque dancers- 1890s
Mora -Lydia Thompson-Robinson Crusoe
Womens Vintage Boots in different decades
By the 1920s, of course, women were showing off a lot more than her ankles, sometimes flashing as much as a knee, and they wore shoes rather than boots mostly, for greater effect.
Womens Vintage Boots up until the 40s were mainly for practical purposes, like riding or to wear over shoes in rainy weather. By the 40s we see some very sensible ankle boots with a fur trim for cold weather coming in.
60s Womens Vintage Boots
The Sixties is what I think of as the major decade for Womens Boots, with Emma Peel style Kinky Boots all the rage. They really emphasised the mini-ness of those mini skirts and hot pants. They came up to and sometimes over the knee, in shiny patent leather coloured white, black, or space age silver.
1960’s flat boots
Womens Vintage Boots had a round or square toe, a small heel and were designed usually with no decoration on the front and no laces but a zip at the side or back. Alternatively in the Sixties you see a mid calf white kidskin design, with a pointed toe. This was absolutely flat.
70s Womens retro Boots
In the Seventies both men and women stomped around in over the top knee high platform boots, in patent leather, glitter and bright colours.
In Eighties Womens Vintage Boots you see again more sensible style, the low heeled earth mother knee high boot in brown, which was pulled on, or a return to Victoriana in pointed toes, punched patterns and a great deal of narrow lacing.
Womens Vintage Cowgirl boots
Cowgirl boots have been popular in all eras, but especially the Seventies and Eighties.
Vintage 30s – 40s boots by Miller
Authentic boots
Womens Vintage Boots are a category of their own and you’ll find both authentic boots, designed for American workers and much more often, designs made for their legions of enthusiasts, who like to dress in wild west styles. They are available in all sorts of colors, lengths (ankle, calf and knee) and embroidery styles.
1940’s womens shoes- bootees
early 60s boots
late 60s boots
Pierre cardin-thigh high boots
1960’s flat boots
Platform boots 1972-73. Museum Purchase
David Bowie looks great in platform boots
From a western clothing catalog – 1950s
1920’s shoes
