Pull on a ‘cracker boot’ this Christmas
BY THIS point, you’re probably fed up with hearing about boots: long ones, short ones, cowboy ones.
Still, you may be grateful for this particular boot tip, given the time of year, and especially if you are somewhere on the fashion effort spectrum between bone idle and very busy and, therefore, grateful for any fashion hacks.
So, here it is: in my experience, the easiest shortcut to getting partyready is the ‘cracker boot’ — cracker because it’s shiny like a Christmas cracker, but also because it’s a cracker of a solution to that age-old problem of: ‘how do I add party dust and glamour and ratchet up my look without having to think about it?’ The cracker boot does this
and it’s a bit unexpected and left field. It’s high impact with minimum effort, which is all you could ask for.
I discovered this a few years back when a shoe-mad girlfriend made me buy a pair of gunmetal ankle boots with a gold stitched arrow on the heel by designer Camilla Elphick.
It was quite a tussle, because they were an ‘investment piece’ (not cheap) and I was sure I wouldn’t get enough wear out of a metallic boot to justify the cost. Wrong. As she predicted, they became my instant gear shift. These boots can boost whatever I am wearing into party territory. Trouser suit, tick. Print midi dress, tick. Cropped trousers, tick.
THE point about metallics is that they work with almost anything, except other metallics (in the unlikely event that you were thinking of wearing a shiny gold trouser suit, too).
An ankle boot can be as over-the-top, glittery, shiny and loud as you like, with no risk of straying into tryhard territory. Footwear is the easiest place to indulge your fashion fantasies, whatever your age, and to go a bit wild.
It’s worth bearing in mind that silver or gunmetal are more versatile than gold, and white, even if high-shine, works less well after dark.
Otherwise, you can unleash your inner magpie and go with whatever you fancy.
On the Camilla Elphick site, there’s the Silver Lining ankle boots in gunmetal, silver (with a glitter arrow), metallic emerald and metallic navy (£275, camillaelphick.com).
She also does a silver and gold pair with a kitten heel (now £80), but that, in my opinion, roughly halves their potential: a sturdy, straight heel is neutral, goes with everything and never dates, whereas a kitten is undeniably girly — and those heels can be floor-wreckers.
That said, hush does a great pointy, kitten-heeled ankle boot in a gunmetal hatching effect (£185, hush-uk.com) or a metallic turquoise (£185).
With boots such as these, you can turn up in your jeans and jumper and you’ll be turning heads.
L.K.Bennett does a straightheeled style, also silver (£275,
lkbennett.com), and Ted Baker has a Chelsea boot-inspired version (£149, tedbaker.com).
If you’re going for gold, opt for a warm gold with a stack heel (£95, sosandar.com).
Alternatively, there’s Zara’s bright, Quality Street mintygreen ankle boot — very high, and low-cut (£99.99, zara.com), so not for the faint-hearted or anyone who suffers vertigo.
A much tamer option, which could look neat under a trouser suit, is Marks & Spencer’s low block heel, metallic blue ankle boots (£35, marksand
spencer. com). After silver, cracker boots seem to look best in sparkly strong blues.
But a cracker boot doesn’t have to be metallic. You might prefer sequin- encrusted, in which case Marc Jacobs’s bronze, gold and silver sequin Chelsea boot (£160, outnet.
com) could be the one. This has a Cuban heel and elastic inserts, which make it a better bet with trousers. (If you want to wear your cracker boots with midi dresses and skirts, stick with a block heel.)
Otherwise, Topshop’s black, sequin-encrusted, pointy style (£79, topshop.com) is on the higher side, but could put some pizzazz in last year’s trouser suit.