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)
