Text by: Marco Martello

“Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind…”

Soldiers, miners wore – throughout Wars, World Wars – protective shoes. In 1945, Klaus Maertens – young German doctor – inserted soles, “air-cushioned” soles convalescing from injury. In 1960, R. Griggs & Co. – traditional British bootmaker – acquired the licence altering the models. Stitch on Stitch. Anyone, everyone chose boots, army boots. Stitch on Stitch. 1970s, anger burst: revolting, revolting, revolutionising. Ten holes, Ten. 1970s, anger burst: revolutionising, revolting, revolting. Mods, punks, skinheads used and abused and used boots. Kawakubo and Yamamoto – designers, avant-garde designers – explored the underground, (re)defining the concept of “strength”: Japan started creative Wave (…Lang to Margiela to Lang). Attitude, long-lost. Back, black to black. Attitude, long-lost. Nevertheless, the figures walking down the catwalks wear boots.

“…If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues”
(Wilfred Owen)

Blumarine boots
Blumarine
Tods boots
Tods
Tods boots
Tods
Tods boots
Tods
tabitha-simmons boots
Tabitha Simmons
tabitha-simmons boots
Tabitha Simmons
Prada boots
Prada
opening-ceremony
Opening Ceremony
off-white boots
Off White
miu-miu boots
Miu Miu