The boots that Kate Moss wore in the 2000s are now back in fashion

Kate Moss: Her favorite boots from the 2000s are back in style.

When I sit in the booths in the VOGUE office, I often think of iconic pop culture moments: Ben Affleck sipping a cigarette after an afternoon in London with his three children; Nicole Kidman, visibly intoxicated, strolling through the city after her breakup with Tom Cruise; and Kate Moss in 2001, leaning against a car in a Los Angeles parking garage, wearing a striped shirt, miniskirt, and Vivienne Westwood "pirate boots." Boots that Moss wore not just that afternoon, but throughout the 2000s .

With multiple buckles, a flat sole, and a round toe, the shoes are highly recognizable—and add a certain something to any outfit. Sienna Miller, Miley Cyrus, and Anne Hathaway, along with Kate Moss , were fans in the 2000s. And even in 2025, I keep encountering them: Creative Consultant Jodie Hill pairs her "Pirate Boots" with low-rise skinny jeans; stylist Lily Bling wears them with Adidas tracksuit bottoms; and drummer Meg Mills combines them with bubble skirts and band tees. All of these figures seem to share a distaste for the mainstream—an attitude that, of course, also permeated Westwood herself when she designed the shoe.

It was 1981 when the rebellious Westwood designed the "Pirate Boots" for her Fall/Winter 1981 collection—her very first runway show. "Malcolm [McLaren, her then-husband, ed.] and I didn't want to be seen as token rebels," the designer later said of that collection. "We wanted to escape from this island and plunder the world, like pirates." While most of us think far less about clothes than Westwood does, the idea of ​​escape and rebellion, however metaphorical, arguably persists decades later.

This article originally appeared on Vogue.co.uk .

More topics on VOGUE.de: