The march of the V-high boots

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10 April 2012

This autumn there is a clear sartorial divide. Good girls stand demurely in flat shoes. Bad girls teeter in Stella McCartney thigh-high boots. These perforated faux-leather boots hug the wearer like a second skin.

From Prada to Topshop, bum-high boots are everywhere. Rihanna teams her Stellas with a micro mini-dress.

The normally understated English rose, Rachel Weisz, posed in a fierce pair of studded hip-hugging Alexander McQueens for Harper's Bazaar.

Madonna accessorised her leather and velvet ribbon thigh-length Louis Vuitton boots with rabbits' ears at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala. Even squeaky clean teen, Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus, adopted the look for Elle magazine.

But these new model waders go further than previous incarnations of the thigh-high. They envelop your legs, kiss your thighs and inch higher. No wonder they've been dubbed "vagina high" boots by naughty fashion bloggers.

"They are seriously V-high," a twenty-something told me in wonder as she struggled into a pair of black, laced thigh-length monster-heel boots.

So why are we flirting with such daring underwear-grazing heights. Recession? A new love of femininity (see the new passion for suspenders).

According to design critic Stephen Bayley, author of Woman As Design, "any sort of form-fitting leather invites speculation about the flesh beneath and suggests a keen sensuality and a very sexy confidence on behalf of the wearer.

"It disguises and advertises at the same time: the curious eye is irresistibly drawn to places more complicated than the knee. Any look-at-me gesture has an erotic character: vagina boots magnify look-at-me into very focused voyeurism."

But can fashion really resell us the new vagina boots as a bold aesthetic trend. Doesn't it always read Pretty Woman or dominatrix?

For sex and relationships expert Tracey Cox "boots draw the eye up the leg towards the genitals. Thigh-high boots are the garb of hookers and it takes a brave woman to pull on a pair when they're not in fashion. It sends a very clear message: I'm up for it.

"Only the sexually confident are picking up on this trend. If you're not into being seen as a sex symbol, you're not going to buy a pair of thigh-high boots.

"Having said that, I think women enjoy wearing them because it teases the hell out of men. They practically salivate looking at women in them. It's fun!"

According to Bayley: "Feet are where fetish and fashion meet. Whether Chinese lotus foot or European stiletto, women have historically engaged in the collective madness of voluntary disablement. The bound foot actually replicated a vagina.

"For many Chinese men, the deformed foot was the preferred sexual part. Meanwhile, spiked heels, significantly named after a murderous dagger, put a woman into a posture which emphasised the bottom and flattered the legs. Men noticed. And now the vagina boot makes a trinity of transgression."

Freud thought the shoe or boot was a symbol of the female genitals, too - a gap or perceived lack when the little girl realises that females do not possess a penis.

The moment in the story where Cinderella loses her shoe on the stairs while fleeing at midnight from the Prince represents a feared loss of virginity (climbing or descending staircases stands for sexual intercourse).

In another fairytale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses by the Grimm Brothers, the princesses' shoes are worn out with dancing. While the erotic connotations of Puss in Boots are obvious.

No wonder the Surrealists Dalí and Magritte were obsessed by them, while female artists from Leonora Carrington to Paula Rego have always understood the power of the laced boot.

I'll bet the puss-in-boots look scares the hell out of most men. After all, they've no idea how far up the boots go. Hidden under a dress or jacket, it's all part of the delicious tease.

Says Cox: "I don't think most of the thigh-highs are at vagina level. They're more mid-thigh. Dangerously close but not actually there. So there's the thrill without it being too blatant."

A wobble, not a swagger

By Jasmine Gardner

As I teetered on one leg, attempting to compress my flesh between the zipper of my £1,495 Roberto Cavalli V-highs, I remembered an email advertising Cynosure V-high Boot Lipo and wished I had signed up.

When I was little, I wondered why my thighs spread out more on the chair than other children's.

I learnt it was genetics and that crazes such as over-the-knee socks and wet-look leggings were off-limits. But the V-high is hard to ignore.

Featured in the collections of Stella McCartney, Rodarte, Roberto Cavalli and Prada, they made a huge mark on the A/W 09 catwalk, so no surprise they're doing the same to thighs on the high street.

Mine attracted plenty of sidelong glances but probably not for the right reasons. A few girls may have envied the Cavalli stamp but not the wrinkes around the knees (not made for five-footers, are they?).

While the 5.5 inch heels add the height I don't possess, the resulting wobble ruins any hope of a swagger. Leave it to the experts, girls. These boots are for Agy, not me.

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