Crossword Genius

A girly boot design is essential (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

obligatory

'essential' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'a girly boot design' is the wordplay.
'design' indicates an anagram.
'a'+'girly'+'boot'='agirlyboot'
'agirlyboot' is an anagram of 'OBLIGATORY'.

'is' is the link.

(Another definition for obligatory that I've seen is " Binding".)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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