I have to admit, I had them. My sister had them, and everyone I knew had Them. Those white go-go boots made from shiny white plastic. Why? Because they were mod man, it was what was hip and fashionable. Looking back, I am not so sure I would have fallen prey to this particular 60s fashion, but as I was entering my “hippyhood” as an adolescent, I experimented with all sorts of fads before I found, just being was the in thing.

I actually had two pairs of the plastic white boots. Some days I would wear them with a short skirt, dress, or shorts, but it sort of cracked me up to see myself looking so Nancy Sinatra. Most days I would wear them with bell bottom jeans or if thre was a day I wanted to play like I was a moon person.

 Of course, I would wear them when I could to school since my parents demanded we wore dresses until 7th grade. I would try to wear them to a church. My parents belonged to a rather weird religion, and I, even at a young age, rebelled against it by trying to wear those boots to their church.

Go-go boots were all the rage as Nancy Sinatra sang “These Boots are Made for Walking”. She made that song a hit as two bird-caged women danced next to her. Sinatra made sure that as women’s skirts got shorter the boot tops got longer. There were several kinds of these boots. You could get the white go-go boot either up to your calf or past your knee. They also had some that went above the ankle. They normally zipped up the back or side, and later they had these slick boots that laced up the front.

Most people give credit to André Courrèges as the originator of the boot that was often referred to as Moon boots. These boots were huge hits on TV shows that involved dancing like Hullabaloo, American Bandstand, and Shindig. They were also a huge hit on runways for mod, groovy fashion lines.

Today, the knee high boot is still popular, though most are not made of cheap white plastic, and clearly they are not called go-go boots, and rarely do you see women dancing in bird cages wearing these silly waxy looking boots. However, women did wear these plastic white boots along with their mini skirts and white lipstick for almost a decade.

I look back and am grateful that following some trends was something I had more fun laughing at rather than participating in. The last few bands I played in, I had to perform “These Boots are Made for Walking” as a sort of salute to bad fashion. Then again, if you wanted to look like a moon lady, the fashion wasn’t so bad.