This season’s liveliest fashion development has been the boot. Many designs have been knee-high but mention thigh high boots to any guy and he will suddenly stop making sense.
It doesn’t matter if he has Newsweek delivered to his home every morning, just drop the words “leather”, “thigh” and “boots” in the same sentence and watch his eyes glaze over as his head fills with images of Jane Fonda in Barbarella or Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.
But it’s not just the sight of leather. The quality of leg is important as Adam, 32, assures me. “If a woman has good legs,” he says, “it doesn’t matter what kind of boots she wears.” Well, that’s alright then.
“Boots are a difficult subject. I don’t think they are a sexual signal. I hate seeing women in Doctor Martins and skirts, I think it looks really awful. And I hate knee-length boots with stiletto heels and if they’re white, that’s even worse.” Key words, according to Adam, are “graceful” and “stylish”. So those 16-eye Doc Martins are out, I guess.
Richard, 21, sees things a little differently. He has no objections to women in combat boots. “But,” he says, “it depends on who’s wearing them”. According to Richard knee-high numbers can sometimes be “a bit naff” and can make a woman look like “a tart”.
Ernest, 29, has a slightly different view. “Boots give off powerful signals,” he says. “They are harsh looking things. Sometimes I see a woman wearing a pair of high boots and I think, ‘Walk on me, walk on me!'” Yes, well, moving swiftly along.
And how does he like them? “Long and leather, right up to the thigh,” says Ernest without a moment’s hesitation.
But the sexual attraction of footwear is difficult for men to put into words. “I’m not a leg man,” admits Ernest. “A woman can have small legs or big legs, but when she puts on a pair of boots, it gives the impression of quick sex. It also depends on what she’s wearing and if a woman has a good shape, boots highlight that more.”
Ben, 21, agrees. “If someone looks like the Incredible Hulk, wearing boots is not going to help,” he says. “Boots are quite individual things, like hats – they are an expression.”
And what turns him on? “Over the knee boots,” Ben says, needing no prompting. “Something a bit daring with a higher heel.”
Maybe the thing about boots is what they cover rather than what they reveal. After all the Victorians used to cover the legs on their pianos as a glimpse of ankle, even if it belonged to a large inanimate object, could send your average male into paroxysms of ecstasy.
Ernest admits to having a bit of a thing about women in cowboy boots, but he has a special fondness for women in boxing boots. Why? “It’s those criss-cross lacings,” he says gleefully. Hmm, I see.
Laces seem to figure prominently in men’s imaginations when it comes to boots. Maybe it’s the thought of all the trouble they’ll have to go through to get them off. Just don’t tell him they’ve got zips down the side – you’ll spoil his fun.
I ask Tony, 28, if there is a particular style of boot he likes to see a woman in. “Ones with the laces all the way up the front,” he drools.
And what about height? “Most knee-length boots look sexy,” he says, “but even ankle boots can look good. There’s very little a woman can do to spoil the effect of a good pair of boots.”
“Thigh length boots definitely suggest something, a strong drive of sexuality. I think boots are the furthest you can go – like wearing a lot of make-up.”
But whatever the style, a bit of heel is important, at least according to the men I spoke to. “I don’t like it when women wear flat, boring shoes,” as Tony says.
But was it ever thus? In the early 1900s, perhaps because women’s legs were never shown and feet were only partly seen when sitting down, footwear wasn’t given much attention. But when women started wearing shorter skirts in 1915, buttoned or laced calf-high numbers known as “cloth top boots” came into fashion. Hot stuff.
By the 1920s women had gone “Russian”, wearing long boots that looked like a squashed version of what horse riders wear now.
But it wasn’t until the 1960s that boots really came into their own when all the hip, young things started wearing “kinky” boots which were knee-length with pointed or squared-off toes. Then with the mini-skirt came the swashbuckling look with thigh-length boots worn in soft kid leather. And things have never been the same since even though during the 1970s, the peasant look came in and people took to wearing “Peruvian” boots. Ours is not to reason why.
In the early 1980s we had the cowboy boot which gave away to ankle high Pixie boots. Now thanks to the likes of Gucci and Prada, glamour is back and it looks like it’s here to stay.
Nancy Sinatra may have told us that these boots were made for walkin’ but I thought that the average Joe would be a sucker for stiletto heels – the higher, and more impractical the better. Not so, or not according to the men I spoke to. Only one admitted to having a penchant for pointy heels, but clumpy ones were a definite no-no all-round.
The word from the male corner then, is wear ’em high and in any colour as long as it’s black.
