Go-Go Boots: A History Of The Footwear That Ruled The 1960s

|
Nancy Sinatra, 1969 (Getty); Jennie and Terrie Frankel, 1972 (Wikimedia Commons)

Go-go boots were mod; they were space-age; they appealed to hippies and Motown divas and high-street fashionistas alike. They were a little bit cutesy and a little bit rock 'n roll. Thanks to Nancy Sinatra and plenty of stylish female celebrities of the 1960s and '70s we're all familiar with this calf-high footwear, but the history of go-go boots is less well-known. In fact, go-go boots, along with miniskirts and flip hairdos encapsulate the fashion sense of an era -- and still take us back to the days of a somehow more innocent sex appeal. Patent leather or shiny vinyl, usually white -- there's no denying they have a sanitized fetish element, what we used to call "kinky." 

But go-go boots were also empowering -- they were the boots of science fiction sirens, stylish female spies and Bond girls. Go-go boots looked good on everyone -- from hip professionals to cheerleaders to flight attendants. From Indigenous folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie to blaxploitation vixen Pam Grier. The 1960s and '70s were a tumultuous, glorious time in pop culture and history. And go-go boots were there, every step of the way