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These Greek Gods Are Wearing Thigh-High Ugg Boots

There is something mythological about the concept of a thigh-high stiletto Ugg boot — a shoe that defies mere mortal shoes if you will — and Y/Project creative director Glenn Martens took that correlation and ran with it. He reimagined the furry, sky-high shoes against the backdrop of famous Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, including Venus, Apollo, Hercules and Omphale.

The classic nudes in the masterpieces of Alexandre Cabanel, Simon Vouet, and François Boucher can now stay warm with some furry boots on their otherwise exposed bodies. The AW18 campaign came about as a result of celebrating an iconic shoe with iconic art.

“Glenn is a true creative and visionary and has created a campaign for us that is not only thought-provoking and provocative but beautiful,” said Andrea O’Donnell, President, Fashion Lifestyle, Deckers Brands. “That makes it truly modern and the perfect expression of where the UGG Brand is today.”

Models Betsy Teske, Jan Trojan, Tess McMillan and Sami El Haddad play the roles of Venus, Hercules, Omphale, and Apollo, respectively. The campaign has an almost David LaChapelle feel, merging aspects of classic art with camp. Uggs as slides, stiletto mules, and stiletto thigh-high boots is just audacious enough to work. And let’s be real, the idea of keeping your legs warm with essentially a thick, furry blanket throughout winter sounds very nice.

“To celebrate this iconic collaboration I wanted to create a campaign which merges the history of UGG, a brand invented by and for surfers, and Y/Project’s base codes,” Martens said. “Y/Project is about fun, eclecticism and twisting the expected. The Classic boot is one of the most recognisable shoes in history. It is a statement. The starting inspiration would be the birth of Venus. This is about the birth of something classic, the birth of this collaboration, surfing on waves, twisting the expected, triggering the eye in an eclectic mishmash of different codes.”