When the War Ended in 1945, Europe Turned to the Task of Rebuilding, and Americans Once Again Looked West for Inspiration
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When the war ended in 1945, Europe turned to the task of rebuilding, and Americans once again looked west for inspiration. The swagger of the cowboy fitted the victorious mood of the country. Dude ranches were now a destination for even the middle class. Hopalong Cassidy and the puppet cowboy Howdy Doody kept children glued to their televisions, and Nashville’s country music industry produced one ‘rhinestone cowboy’ after another. Westerns were also one of the most popular film genres. As the movie director Dore Schary noted, ‘the American movie screen was dominated by strong, rugged males – the “one punch, one [gun] shot variety”.’43 In this milieu, cowboy boots became increasingly glamorous. Exagger- atedly pointed toes, high-keyed coloured leathers, elaborate appliqué and even actual rhinestone embellishments were not considered excessive. This period has been called the golden age of cowboy boots, and the artistry and imagination expressed in late 1940s and 1950s boot-making is staggering. The cowboy boot was becoming part of costume, a means of dressing up, of playing type. This point was made clear by the popularity of dress-up cowboy clothes, including boots, for children. Indeed, this transformation into costume was becoming the fate of many boots in fashion. Although most boot styles fell out of fashion in the 1950s, in the immediate post-war period a particular form of military footwear did pass into men’s stylish casual dress: the chukka boot, said to have come from India, and its variant, the desert boot. Designed as a low ankle boot with a two to three eyelet closure, chukkas were said to have been worn for comfort by British polo players both on and off the field in India.44 The simple desert boot was based on the traditional chukka but in Cairo during the war it was given a crepe sole and soft suede upper. Nathan Clark of the British shoe-manufacturing Clark family translated the desert boot for civilian use. Both the desert boot and the chukka had become accessories of casual male elegance by the 1950s, being particularly popular with young men. For some men, however, relaxation was not to be had lounging in khakis and shod in desert boots; instead they sought to embrace the freedoms for which they had so recently fought and the close male 130 Boots: Inclusivity The high-heeled cowboy symbolized unfettered freedoms and self-reliance in the 20th century. This pair of Tony Lama boots reflects the fashion for finery, from the use of lizard skin at the toe to the high stacked leather heel. American, mid-20th century. The engineer’s boot became popular with bikers after the Second World War. The biker offered an updated version of the cowboy, and his sartorial codes likewise spoke to unfettered freedom. American, mid-20th century. camaraderie that they had experienced. Groups of ex-military men began to gather together, drawn by their love of motorcycles, and by the late 1940s biker clubs were being established throughout the United States.45 Often described as mid-century cowboys, American bikers took to the open road astride their motorized mounts wearing a new type of riding boot, the engineer boot. The first engineer boots were created by the American shoe manu- facturer Chippewa. The company had established itself in Chip- pewa Falls, Wisconsin, making rugged boots for loggers at the turn of the century. By 1937 they had begun to make engineer boots for land surveyors based on the English riding boot, designed to present a neat, professional appearance in the field.46 These rugged yet elegant boots featured adjustable straps at the knee and across the instep and were soon adopted by other professions. The introduction of the mid-calf-high shaft in 1940 only increased their popularity and they became the footwear of choice for dock workers during the war years. Bikers began to wear engineer boots immediately following the war. When paired with denim and worn with leather jackets, en- gineer boots became a central accessory to the ‘outlaw biker’ look cultivated by members of biker clubs ousted from the American Motorcycle Association. The Hollister riot of 1947 seared this image into the American imagination. The ‘riot’ occurred when bikers from across the United States descended on the small California town of Hollister on Independence Day 1947. Hollister had hosted gypsy motorcycle races since the 1930s but the Second World War had put an end to them, until 1947, when an attempt was made to re- establish the tradition. Biker culture had dramatically grown in popularity and Hollister was unprepared for the large numbers that arrived in the town. Drunken and disorderly conduct defined the event, but in reality little damage was actually done. Sensationalized news coverage of the event captured America’s attention. A staged photo of a boozing and booted biker published in Life magazine’s 21 July issue helped to convey the idea that bikers were outlaws and rebels. The movieThe Wild One (1953), inspired by the event and Boots: Inclusivity 133 starring Marlon Brando, disseminated this image of the malcontent biker to an even wider audience. The look was further glamorized by James Dean in 1955 when he starred in Rebel Without a Cause, and soon the impression of motorcycle boots commingled with ideas of youth alienation and social degeneracy. The extremely macho and homosocial nature of American biker culture also offered an appealing model of masculinity that spoke to many gay men. Rejecting the stereotype of effete male homosexuals, ‘leathermen’ began to form their own biker clubs in the 1950s wearing leather outfits – fetishized versions of biker clothing or military attire – from head to toe. The artist Touko Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland, captured this in the men’s erotica that he started producing in the late 1950s. Leatherman groups, like other biker groups, were drawn to the often militaristic order of clubs. Some included bdsm erotic elements such as bootblacking, in which boots played an important role: the relationship between bootblacks and boot-wearing customers had faded from daily life by the middle of the twentieth century, but the power dynamics inherent in the service were eroticized and moved underground, becoming an important part of leatherman culture. The romance surrounding American biker culture was also central to the development of the British motorcycle gangs known as rockers, who likewise rode large motorcycles and wore leather jackets and engineer boots. Their rivals were the mods, who preferred pristine scooters and dressed in more Continental fashion, with the exception of their footwear. They favoured the very English desert boot as well as the more refined Chelsea boot. The rockers and the mods shared similar working-class backgrounds and engaged in similar hooligan behaviour, but their sartorial differences were pronounced, the clothing of each group being worn like uniforms. In summer 1964 the two groups clashed at a number of British seaside towns and a ‘moral panic’ ensued across the uk.47 As the 1960s progressed the leather-boy attire of the rockers ossified. The suit-wearing mods fractured into two main groups: those who were mainly inter- ested in fashion, and the so-called ‘hard mods’ who began to sport 134 Boots: Inclusivity shaved heads and wore lace-up work boots, eventually leading to skinhead culture. In men’s fashion, mod style became very influential as the 1960s progressed: The new ‘Mod look’ for men – which could become the hottest thing that ever happened to men’s wear fashion, is a con- troversial subject among the cognoscenti . typical of the Mod look – Tom Jones ruffled shirts, corduroy jeans, high-heeled Chelsea boots and similar styles are causing much comment.48 The English rock band the Beatles, who took the world by storm, are often credited with disseminating the fashion for mod-inspired suits and ‘Beatle boots’. These updated congress or Chelsea boots often featured higher heels, in emulation of the Beatles member The presence of gleaming boots was often central to the charged eroticism of Tom of Finland’s artworks. Tom of Finland, #82.08, 1982. Boots: Inclusivity 135 John Lennon had this typical Chelsea boot altered. The heel was replaced with a higher, wooden heel of the kind worn by male flamenco dancers. British, early 1960s. John Lennon, who had his customized with higher wooden heels taken from men’s flamenco footwear. The mod look was part of the larger ‘peacock revolution’, which argued that males of other species, from peacocks to lions, were the more adorned of the sexes and which looked to fashion from the past for inspiration, including the ankle boot for men. ‘At the beginning of the 1960s “fashion” was a feminine gender. By the end of the decade, the male had taken over the world of clothes – the dreariness of his postwar clothing disappeared . all in a flamboyant rebellion against the Wall Street Uniform.’49 Clothing was at the centre of the ensuing ‘battle of the sexes’. An article on Britain’s new booted age wrote that ‘men and women all over . are vying with each other in a semi-sexual competition to prove who wears the boots best.’50 The article explained that ‘The men, of course, claim that they’ve always worn boots – and their stylish, calf-length, elastic-sided boots with three inch Cuban heels are merely a development from their days in the army or riding the range.’ But, Rigged out in this ‘fab gear’ . British girls began to emerge from their mouseholes and reveal themselves as pert, poised and brazen creatures ready to battle with any man . All they lack, as they strut the streets of Chelsea, is a sword and buckler.