Vintage shoe by Vivienne Westwood, 1976.
The original pirate boot was produced by then-husband and wife Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren for the Bondage line sold at their Seditionaries store, one of the leading sources of the æsthetics of punk. The wool check paneling coupled with the leather buckles and orange interior (a nod to Westwood's collaboration with Stephen Sprouse) offers an exceptional representation of the codes of the house.
From the Archive
In fashion, every season brings new collections, but some accessories are timeless. These celebrated designs are reinterpreted season after season, with new fabrics, colors, and hardware, becoming as much a part of a brand's identity as the logo itself. For the second in our series revisiting some of these iconic pieces, our fashion director Melissa Levy and photographer Mika Orotea spotlight the bags, shoes, and other accessories that have stood the test of time, objects that are both nostalgic and enduring.
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Vintage shoes by Alaïa, year unknown.
Trained as a sculptor at the Institut Supérieur des Beaux-Arts de Tunis, Azzedine Alaïa celebrated the strength and contours of the female form with exaggeration and compression, leveraging the tools of release and resistance. The crisscrossed laces over the toe cleavage, paired with the supple brushed pink suede and fetish-inspired curved heel, serve as an exemplary model of classic Alaïa coding.
Vintage Le Dix Motorcycle Lariat bag by Balenciaga, Fall 2001.
In 1997, Nicolas Ghesquière revived the house of Balenciaga at the age of twenty-five. Originally a runway prototype with only twenty-five initially produced, the soft and studded Motorcycle bag was a cult aughts icon, favored by Emmanuelle Alt, Carine Roitfeld, Kate Moss, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. A testament to Ghesquière's innate capacity to distill the ultimate cool girl chic, the piece remains coveted twenty-two years later, now reworked by the current creative director of Balenciaga, Demna.
Vintage belt by Alexander McQueen, Pre-Fall 2014.
Subverting the fashion world’s steadfast hierarchy, Lee McQueen emerged in the nineties with a soulfully dark and poetic vision, framed by his Scottish heritage and articulated with intricate craftsmanship. Since his death in 2010, Sarah Burton, McQueen's assistant of fourteen years, has continued to carry the brand forward in today's landscape. The twisted wire belt, designed to be worn gently over heavy wool tailoring, illustrates the delicate and uncomfortable tension of being held, bound, and restrained. This piece is also reminiscent of the seventeen-year collaboration between McQueen with jewelry designer Shaun Leane, specifically the Crown of Thorns headpiece from Fall 1996.
Vintage bag by Gucci, Spring 2000.
Tom Ford was responsible for infusing the mid-nineties and the early aughts with opulent and minimalist sex appeal in his iconic campaigns and collections that defined an era that continues to echo through the zeitgeist. This 23-year-old beaded evening bag, lined with the jewel tone of washed blue silk satin and the bold silver chain, is the epitome of hedonistic glamor. Tim Blanks once noted that Ford's designs of the time "lit the fuse of the sex bomb."
As a nonprofit arts and culture publication dedicated to educating, inspiring, and uplifting creatives, Cero Magazine depends on your donations to create stories like these. Please support our work here.