Brothel creepers
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Creepers or brothel creepers are a type of shoe that gained popularity in the 1950s with the rise of rockabilly and the Teddy Boy youth subcultures (in the United States and the United Kingdom respectively).
They are considered a classic item of 1950s fashion, along with elements such as drainpipe trousers, draped jackets, bolo ties, quiff and pompadour haircuts, and velvet or electric blue clothes. Creepers were invented in 1949 by George Cox and initially marketed under the Hamilton brand name, which was based on George Cox Jr.'s middle name[1]. The brothel creeper was a big hit throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Malcolm McLaren gave the shoe a new lease of life in the early 1970s when he began selling the shoes from his Let it Rock shop in London's Kings Road. The shoes were snapped up by his Teddy Boy clientele, and when McLaren and his partner Vivienne Westwood decided to change the shop into a more rocker-oriented fashion, the brothel creeper still proved to be popular amongst the customers[2]. The shoe has since been adopted by some members of other subcultures, such as ska, punk, psychobilly and goth. In 2003 Osiris Shoes produced the Ali Boulala, which is a brothel creeper-influenced skateboarding shoe.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ See the 50th anniversary Creeper marketed in 1999 to celebrate the first half-century of Cox's Creeper shoe.
- ^ See also this site for a brief introduction to the history of Let it.
