Go-Go Boots

Go-Go boots were originally created in the 1960s with the intention that they should be used for wearing while dancing. The term is said to have originated from André Courrèges, who made a white, low-heeled boot, rising a bit above the ankles. The term is often used to define all types of fashion boots for women, especially the knee-high type with a high heel.

Go-Go boots are often associated with Nancy Sinatra.

Boots

Kinky Boots

Thigh High Boots

Shoe Fetish

Riding Boots

Sandals Definition

Shoe Definition

Clothing Definitions

A Dance Boot That Became a Fashion Category

The original go-go boot was a practical dance shoe in boot form. Dancing for long sets in discotheques called for a low, stable heel rather than a stiletto, and a shaft rising a bit above the ankle gave the leg a clean, unbroken line with the short skirts of the mid-1960s. White was the signature colour: it matched the bright, space-age palette of Andre Courreges, the Paris designer credited with the style, and it showed up clearly under club lighting. The boots were part of a complete look — short dress, white boots, energetic dancing — that television and pop performance carried around the world, which is why the style remains associated with performers of the period such as Nancy Sinatra.

Once the name was established, it drifted. Retailers and wearers applied go-go boots to women's fashion boots generally, and especially to the knee-high boot with a high heel that followed the original ankle boot as hemlines and tastes changed. That wider use means the term now covers two related but visibly different boots: the low-heeled white dance boot of the 1960s, and the taller, higher-heeled fashion boot sold under the same name. Within footwear definitions the neighbours mark the boundaries. Thigh-high boots continue the shaft above the knee; riding boots are the functional leather boot from which fashion boots borrow their cut; and kinky boots is the term used when the same high boot forms are treated as fetish clothing. A go-go boot, in its strict sense, stays a fashion boot: low heel, above-ankle shaft, made to be danced in and to be seen.

The style has returned in cycles since the 1960s, usually when short skirts return with it, because the boot's proportions are set by the hemline above it: an above-ankle or knee-high white boot needs a short skirt to be seen at all. Revivals reproduce the signals of the first version, white or bright colours, a manageable heel and a clean shaft without heavy hardware, even when the height and heel have moved toward the general fashion boot the name now also covers.