The Ornamented Being

c. 1918

The Met says: High shoes with a strapped or laced front were known as “Grecian sandals” or “Grecian boots” in the 19th century. In about 1913, a new moniker appeared: the “tango boot.” The dance craze of the 1910s encouraged footwear that was both showy and firmly secured to the foot, thus elevating the tango boot and its sister style, the tango shoe (a pump with crossing laces or straps which extended up the ankle), to prominence. In this interpretation of the tango boot from the Brooklyn Museum collection, the flamboyant metallic material would serve to attract attention to the movement of the feet, whether on or off the dance floor.