With the rise of globalization and advanced textile capacity, fashion has begun to disseminate at rates reducing the seasonal trend cycle to monthly or even weekly micro-trends. The style forecast of these micro-trends follows a simple cycle: a style is seemingly plastered everywhere on social media by early adopters and, a week later, becomes tacky before ever reaching the mainstream.
Beyond the regular posts on my social media feed, these carefully crafted Instagram micro-trend photos reveal something more: the newest fleeting clothing trend — the moon boot.
The moon boot is like the final boss of the chunky shoe trend. It is one of those special pieces that, paired with gaudy labeling, shrieks with tackiness. It gives an instantly polarizing feeling: those who wear them, love them and those who don’t, don't.
As you can guess, moon boots are inspired by the astronaut boot, born in an era of retrofuturism and nurtured in a kitschy late '70s fashion scene. The retrofuturism aesthetic, beginning around the '50s, dreams about how technology and progress will influence our lives. It uses the dichotomy of retro stylings and futuristic aspects to create an unsettling visual of the future. Born again, the moon boot was then revived in the 2000s inspired by the 1969 Apollo 11 landing, sparking a new optimism for the future's potential.
So why now?
Firstly, we are amid a 2000s comeback in fashion with Y2K trends buzzing around social media. Those yearning for 2000s childhood nostalgia have grown up and begun their command of fashion and popular media. These shoes are a callback to the 2000s as well as the '80s with a bright, bold playful aesthetic. Concurrently, irony has become a staple in contemporary fashion. This comes in the form of playing with the contrast between lowbrow items and refined environments to create a visceral reaction of distaste from the viewer. These are items, like real-life clickbait, that get views and spark conversation based on their shock value, breeding a culture of irony for engagement. The Balenciaga Croc is alive and well. Finally, perhaps we are in our own era of retrofuturism with the rise of techwear. Techwear, a style that treasures practical pieces often used as workwear transformed into high fashion wear, has taken over media. You might have seen someone showering inside in their rain jacket to prove the quality of their clothes. The moon boot could be a preceding iteration of modern retrofuturism with the interest in the collision of innovation and wearability.
The moon boot, as I see it, is another “if you know, you know” item that only some can afford. Costing hundreds of dollars, it is on the pricier side for a pair of winter boots, but no one's buying them for practical reasons. Nonetheless, I applaud the moon boot's bold approach and call to the days dreaming for the stars.
0/10 impulse to buy.
