Here’s one for your WTF file. I learned about this from Craig Rullman, who was astonished at the giant gap in my cultural anthropology kitbag. Talking pointy boots.
From NPR:
The boots first appeared in the rural town of Matehuala, San Luis Potosi, Mexico. As Vice explains in a short documentary, things started innocently enough, with people simply altering their boots to make them pointier. Then people from neighboring towns started to compete on pointiness. “Then people started making them pointier and pointer, until it got out of control,” says one young man who fashions pointy boots out of water hoses.
The trend coincided with the rise of tribal (pronounced tree-BAL) music, which is a mix of pre-Hispanic sounds, cumbia rhythms and techno. Residents of Matehuala started wearing the boots in tribal dancing competitions at clubs, rodeos and quinceañeras.
The boots eventually made their way to Hispanic neighborhoods in Texas. Even though the boots originated in Matehuala, Erick Rincon, a DJ who skyrocketed the boots’ popularity when he featured them in a music video that’s been viewed more than 50 million times on YouTube, told Vice they’re actually more popular in Texas.
Here’s the Vice doco; it will tell you everything you need to know and more.
What the hell would Pancho Villa think? Emiliano Zapata? Zapata was a fashion plate, but he wore manly round-toed boots. Had a pointy mustache though… Just sayin’.
In case you thought that pointy boots and skinny jeans to set ’em off was something new and trendy, I give you the medieval version:
“Mine are longer than yours…”
My theory is that this is no accident. Mexico is subliminally wired to a medieval mindset. I’m totally convinced of that. Weird, but there it is.
Craig Rullman says
I am pleased to see that your studies yielded fruitful results. Well done, compadre.
Matthew says
The history of fashion is really weird. Lot of things that seem bizarre to us were the height of fashion. Frankly, a lot of what seems fashionable today seems bizarre to me.
JimC says
Banjo players in skinny jeans were in evidence at the Sisters Folk Festival last weekend. This surpasseth understanding.
deuce says
Yer probably right about Mexico.
I was raised wearing pointy boots. The better to find and stay in a stirrup. That said, those boots are basically in a category of their own. Sorta like the tricked-out bicycles in East L.A.
Wayne says
As I understand it, during the late Middle Ages the pointy shoe fad became so extreme that some were tying the tip of their shoes up in a curl and back to their ankles (the classic leprechaun shoe). The pope supposedly issued a decree that men’s shoes could only be a certain length since too many fashionable men were tripping going up and down stairs.
Before you laugh too hard, consider that the recent style in men’s shoes was to have a toe longer than the wearer’s foot. Why? You’ve got me.
JimC says
And there you have it, folks. When the Pope has to be the fashion police, things have gotten completely out of control.
Pat_H says
I like round toe boots myself (and oddly, I’m nearly done with a post on the history of the cowboy boot. . . some of my posts sort of age forever before I post them, but I have a pair of pointy toed ones form the 50s. My mother gave them to my father as a gift, and they fit me, but I can’t bring myself to wear them.
JimC says
I prefer square or round-toed boots myself.
Pat_h says
I’ve pondered getting some square toed ones, but I have two very traditional round toe pair I used for riding/working, and I’m too cheap to buy new ones. I do like the round toes however.
Pat_h says
That’s a fantastic photograph of Zapata, by the way. Is there a source for it so I can acquire one of my very own?
JimC says
It’s a colorization of a historic photo. See here:
http://imgur.com/PWNbT3K
Pat_H says
Having recently completed the cowboy boot entry on my blog, I wonder if the Mexican pointy boot things is a result of the result of the strange collision between American western wear and the Mexican culture that has resulted in the original Mexican styles being supplanted but the adopted American ones seeing their lingering influence.
Mexican horsemen traditionally wore the botin charro, a pointy toe ankle high boot. That’s what Zapata is wearing in the photograph above. The botin charro sometimes had a really pointy toe. As they were only ankle high, the riding trousers that were worn with them tended to be pretty slim.
Now, botin charros aren’t worn much except when men wear really traditional dress, so they’ve passed on, just like the short Mexican wool jacket and the sombrero. They were all replaced by American items, but in Mexican culture, they take on their own style and appearance, just like the cowboy hats worn by Mexicans, which are like ours, but not quite.