Tecnica Moonboots

[BettySkis]

Check out the original Moonboots - there are a lot of copies from Marc Jacobs and others, but I like the originals.

www.moonboot.it

 

[BettySkis]

Found the original 1970s Moonboots, not the knock-offs. You can get them online at a few different stores.

 

[oanadobre]

Does anybody actually wear these?

 

[brian]

yeah, everyone's done ripoffs of those!
i distinctly remember dior's ...

 

[stylegurrl]

They seem to be making a comeback. Marc Jacobs and Dior have them and there is an article about them in the Sunday Styles section of the Sunday NYT (10/17/04). I think they look a bit silly personally...

 

[Alejandro]

I dunno what I think about them...I don't hate them, I would actually get caught down the street wearing them...

 

[stylegurrl]

NYT Article:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 17, 2004
Moon Boots Back on Earth
By RUTH LA FERLA

EW occasions were as "sweet," in the word of Napoleon, the Brillo-haired hero of the cult movie hit "Napoleon Dynamite," as the day he acquired a pair of outsize winter running shoes. "They're basically moon boots but have better traction and are more aerodynamic," Napoleon explains. "You should probably get a pair."

That goofy endorsement might resonate with Napoleon's real-life teenage peers, those oddly assorted technonerds who like the way moon boots function. But their utility could not matter less to fashion fanatics, many of whom have kicked aside their sheepskin Uggs — last year's craze — to make way for these clunky usurpers.

Moon boots, which first saw light in the early 1970's as the footgear of choice for astronauts, club crawlers and snow bunnies, have been revived by the fashion tribe, and in particular by early adopters like Caroline Gottesman. Last week Ms. Gottesman, a 22-year-old Harvard senior, sprang for a pair of ponderous-looking nylon and polyurethane Tecnica boots, said by the merchants who claim to know about such things to be the original moon boot. On a day when the temperatures shot into the 70's, Ms. Gottesman wore hers with a miniskirt. "They're not hot," she insisted. "They're comfortable."

Was it only last summer that she doted on her Uggs? Never mind, said Ms. Gottesman, who has stowed those boots in the rear of her closet. "I've moved on."

Uggs, to be sure, still have a pulse. Over 14 million Ugg boots were sold in the third quarter of this year, according to their maker, an increase of 44 percent over the same period last year. But moon boots, a catchall term for all manner of thickly padded polar footwear (including hirsute variations better suited to a sasquatch), boast the distinction of being fatter, stiffer and more ungainly than their fuzzy Aussie siblings, and to their fans, much hipper.

Retailers say they are hard-put to keep them in stock. "Everybody is always looking for that next big thing," said Jaye Hersch, the owner of Intuition, a Los Angeles boutique, where moon boots have sold in the hundreds and been reordered three times since they first arrived two weeks ago. Customers have been lining up all month to buy Golas, which are a cushiony interpretation of the lunar boot offered in pastels, at $80 a pair. "We've been seeing these all over the streets, even though the temperature is still in the 80's," Ms. Hersch said. "It's like the way we saw Uggs being worn in the beginning, just a couple of years ago."

At the Tannery in Cambridge, Mass., where Ms. Gottesman bought her moon boots, the most popular models come in space-age white or silver. "People want to look like astronauts," said Marcello Fernandes, who manages Web sales for the store, adding with a hoot: "They're the ugliest things I've ever seen in my life. And people love them. "

Their unregenerate homeliness has in fact endeared them to aficionados, who show theirs off much as they did their Uggs last year: as a cute, if klutzy, counterpoint to their billowy, flower-splashed frocks. "Sometimes you have to wear moon boots with a skirt, just to balance out the look," said Melissa Belgiovine, 21, a senior at Boston University, who has added a pair of lipstick-red Tecnica boots to her inventory of Prada loafers and spike-heeled pumps.

Moon boots are surfing the same retrofuturistic style wave as the resurrection of the classic 1970's Puma sneakers and Le Tigre polo shirts. And though they have been seen on the likes of Jennifer Lopez and Pamela Anderson, moon boots are that true rarity, a fashion fad that seems to have surfaced spontaneously. "I don't know that this trend is celebrity-driven," Ms. Hersch said. "It's doing just fine without a Hollywood tie."

The boots first regained currency a couple of years ago, around the time they came thunk-thunking down the runway in Anna Sui's Fall 2002 show. And interpretations appeared in the fall collections of design houses like Christian Dior, Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs and Pucci. "We call ours a snow boot," said Robert Duffy, the president of Marc Jacobs, which sells the puffy booties under the Marc by Marc Jacobs label for $180 a pair. Since they began arriving in stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus late last June, about 9,000 pairs have been sold. Women wore them with dresses on the soupiest summer days, Mr. Duffy said.

More recently, the Columbia Sportswear Company and Timberland, both specialists in high-function hiking shoes, have capitalized on the rage for utility gear, introducing moon boots of their own. "Consumers demand performance," explained Traci Thayne, Timberland's global senior product manager — never mind that performance is not apt to be a high priority for women who collect moon boots along with their Manolos.

Timberland's moon boots will reach stores next month. But by then those with exquisite fashion antennae will likely have moved on. Tarek Hassan, who owns the Tannery, is already thinking ahead. "Moon boots could be done with very cool materials," he said. "That whole tweed look would be awesome. Or we could tweak it up a little bit with rainbow colors. This is just the beginning."

 

[meister122]

I have a friend who owns the Dior ones, and another that has the "original" Technica ones. The one thing that I don't like about them is that they make both of these girl's already small feat look practically non-existant.

 

[breathe0xygen]

Originally posted by oanadobre@Oct 14 2004, 12:27 AM
Does anybody actually wear these?

[snapback]395788[/snapback]​

certaintly not me.

 

[SophieKawaii]

I'm sorry, but it's simply ugly.

 

[TheSoCalledPrep]

I like them. I really liked the Dior ones, too

 

[Alejandro]

Topics Merged, please don't re-post when there's a topic about it already.

 

[TheSoCalledPrep]

Originally posted by BettySkis@Oct 13 2004, 10:20 AM
Found the original 1970s Moonboots, not the knock-offs. You can get them online at a few different stores.

[snapback]395776[/snapback]​

where??

 

[As You Like It]

My god.

I had a pair when I was a little kid. Actually I had pairs over the course of several winters when I was a little kid. They are ugly, warm, and make your socks bunch up, and smell like the unearthly offspring of a mildwey shower-curtain and the inside of a TanTan by the middle of winter.

Much like legwarmers, if I wore them in the 4th grade and have already experienced the pros and cons of the style, there's nothing my revisiting it at age 27 will do for me.

 

[slinky_vagabond]

Not good, unless you're Napolean Dynamite.

 

[eloes]

Um, anything that the media hails as the 'new Ugg' is something that I will purposely avoid. They are mildly cooler than Uggs, but they're the sort of thing that is only cool if no one else wears them (for the unique factor). As a trend item, they suck.

 

[CelineChic]

I just bought a pair. I couldn't help myself! It's just way too darn cold in Canada!

I bought the Dior ones in pink..... They look a lot nicer than the Marc Jacobs ones.

 

[Luna]

Marshmallow feet

 

[lizzyb831]

i hate those things!

 

[ultramarine]

I love boots .. and chunky shoes ...fill in the blanks!