A Brief History of Fashion’s Kinkiest Boot Inline

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    Photo: Everett Collection
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    Stocking boots borrow from musketeers and fishermen. From left: Mareen O’Hara in At Sword’s Point, 1952; and Mylène Demongeot, ca. 1960

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    Photographed by Irving Penn, Vogue, September 1963
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    “Musketeer boots—shiny, thigh-high, shapely as legs,” Vogue wrote of Roger Vivier’s crocodile thigh-highs for Yves Saint Laurent.

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    Photographed by Henry Clark, Vogue, December 1963
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    The well-heeled Pauline de Rothschild in Saint Laurent Cuissardes.

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    Photographed by Gene Laurents, Vogue, November 1963
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    The streamlined stocking boot look

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    Photo: Keystone / Getty Images
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    The leather legging look, 1965

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    Photo: Terence Spencer / The LIFE Images Collection / Getty Images
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    The—appropriately named—Kinks, 1966

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    Photo: Marisa Rastellini / Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images
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    Some stocking boots were held up with garters, like Barbarella’s, 1967

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    Photo: Keystone / Getty Images
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    Penny Dennis, 1967

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    Photo: George Barkentin / Conde Nast Archive / Corbis
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    Janet Scott, 1967

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    Photo: Time Life Pictures / Pix Inc. / The LIFE Picture Collection / Getty Images
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    Pretty woman, circa 1967, Dontale Luna in laced granny-style stocking boots.

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    Photographed by David Bailey, Vogue, August 1967
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    Candice Bergen takes a shine to the trend.

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    Photographed by Irving Penn
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    Swing out, sister

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    Photo: Gunnar Larsen / REX USA
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    Leather leggings, 1968

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    Photo: Dezo Hoffmann / REX USA
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    Dusty Springfield, 1968

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    Photo: Keystone / Hulton Archive / Getty Images
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    Space-Age stocking boots at Pierre Cardin, 1968

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    Photo: Joe Farrington / NY Daily News Via Getty Images
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    Elizabeth Taylor, 1969

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    Photographed by Irving Penn, Vogue, September 1969
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    Betty Catroux in Yves Saint Laurent and the cuissardes designed for him by Roger Vivier.

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    Photo: Georges Melet / Paris Match via Getty Images
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    They don’t call her a sex symbol for nothing. Brigitte Bardot with, from left to right: André Levasseur, Raymond Gerome, Dominique Perrin, and Jean-Pierre Cassel, 1970

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    Photo: Jack Robinson / Hulton Archive / Getty Images
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    Lauren Hutton and legs for miles, circa 1972

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    Photographed by Irving Penn, Vogue, October 1990
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    The stocking boot gets the couture treatment at Chanel.

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    Photo: John Stoddart / Getty Images
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    Chrissie Hynde, 1990

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    Photo: Photofest
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    Violet in The Incredibles, 2004

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    Photo: Buena Vista Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
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    Chiwetel Ejiofor and Joel Edgerton in Kinky Boots, 2005

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    Photo: Rob Rich / Everett Collection
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    Madonna in Louis Vuitton, 2009

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    Photo: Delphine Achard
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    Christian Dior Haute Couture, Spring 2015

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    Photo: Yannis Vlamos / Indigitalimages.com
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    Christian Dior, Fall 2015