Object: Boot
Designer:
Vivienne Westwood
(British, 1941 - 2022)
Date: 1987
Medium: Black leather and wood
Country: England
Credit Line: Gift of Francois
Object number: 2001.44.13
DescriptionRocking Horse boots in black leather with natural lacquered wood platform soles; ankle height with oval toe, tabbed vamp, and side zip closure; back of heel cut out of platform; worn with the Harris Tweed collection
Label Text:Vivienne Westwood produced these Rocking Horse boots in 1987, a year in which her collections (Harris Tweed and Mini Crini) turned away from her earlier punk aesthetic and towards historicism and playful cheeky interpretations of British tradition. The boots were named for high wooden platforms that rock forward as the wearer walks; they were radically different from styles produced by other designers in the 1980s. Statement-making to extreme, like several other Westwood innovations, they strongly influenced the shoes of the 1990s and are now regarded as classics of her oeuvre. She has re-issued Rocking Horse variants periodically over the past 20 years.
Exhibitions:
- London Fashion
- Fashion, A-Z: Highlights from the Collection of the Museum at FIT (Part Two)
- Vivienne Westwood 1980-1989
- Arbiters of Style