Object: Boots
Brand:
Diana Slip
(French)
Date: c. 1930
Medium: Leather, brass, and cotton
Country: France
Credit Line: Museum purchase
Object number: 2013.50.1
DescriptionBlack thigh high lace up fetish boots in leather with 118 brass hooks at outside leg opening and black cotton cord laces, center front and back seam, human leg shape silhouette, scalloped seam at knee, red leather piping at front vamp seam, wide opening at top with red leather piping trim at scalloped edge, 5 inch high heels, red leather trim at lower heel above leather sole
Label Text:“The heels on this pair of fetish boots are 5 inches, and the boots themselves are thigh-high, a style that tends to be regarded as significantly more erotic than ankle boots or boots that extend only up to the knee… The height of these boots and the heel-toe proximity would have made walking in them very difficult. Nevertheless, they would have made the wearer look powerful, since, already by the 1920s, high-heeled boots were associated with the figure of the dominatrix.”
– Valerie Steele, from the catalog Power Mode: The Force of Fashion
– Valerie Steele, from the catalog Power Mode: The Force of Fashion
Exhibitions:
- Shoes: Anatomy, Identity, Magic
- Power Mode