Boat shoes are a nautical fashion footwear trend that took off in the 1980s.
Traditionally a boat shoe is a leather lace-up, moccasin type shoe with a non-slip sole to prevent you slipping overboard when on watercraft.
One thing that boat shoes do not have or need is a high heel. So what is the link between heels and boat shoes?
The answer is that high heel boat shoes have been designed at least once.
The only version of boat shoes with heels we know of was from classic French shoemaker Pierre Hardy.
In the summer of 2010 boat shoes were very popular. So Pierre Hardy added a heel and created high heel boat shoes (also called deck shoes).
A distinctive feature of these shoes is the lacing which goes right around the sides and back of the shoes as well as lacing up in the traditional way at the front.
The side laces on boat shoes were initially intended to stop the shoes falling off in rough seas, but they also helped the shoe earn its name: the laces make the shoe look a little like a shop with mooring lines around the sides. These days the side laces on boat shoes are decorative only.
Pierre Hardy’s version cost $1,400 for spring / summer 2011. It was named “Montauk” after Montauk House, built 2009-2013 in Long Island, NY by John Pawson.
The house overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and so would be a great place to wear high heeled boat shoes. Well better than on a boat anyhow.
This might have been a trend at the time but we’re unable to find any designer who has repeated the heeled boat shoe since 2010/11. Some things are perhaps best left in the past.