Make a splash in this season’s crop boots
ONe of the biggest changes in fashion over the past couple of years has been the merging of the practical with the desirable. Textile innovations plus popular demand mean you no longer have to choose between dressing for the weather and looking stylish. But more than that, the things purposebuilt for wet and mud are now also the things that make you look modern and feel like a contender.
In years gone by we took pride in carrying on in our Chelsea boots, pointy court shoes, kitten heels and ballet pumps — whatever the conditions — because the alternative was gloomy, frumpy, leg- shortening rubber wellies.
Remember all the times we went out in the driving sleet wearing a flimsy pretty coat (No hood! Not waterproof!) and our best, soon- to- bedestroyed suede boots? For years, practical and comfy was a cop- out; impractical and fabulous a point of honour.
Well, not any more. We’ve got duvet coats and puffer jackets and quilted liners and light rain macs ( from Rains at uk.rains.com if you’re still wondering where to get an attractive mac) and, best of all, as far as I’m concerned, we have Scandi Boots.
They’re not all Scandinavian but a lot are, including the ones I recently bought and have worn most days since.
FIVe years ago, if you’d told me I’d pay the price of a regular pair of leather boots for a pair of short rubber boots
I’d have hooted, but I’ve done just that and these Tretorn Terrang boots from Toast (£90, toa.st) have become my favourite item of clothing.
They not only weatherproof your feet, but their clumpy style — between a wellie and a Chelsea boot, with neoprene panels and chunky tread soles — make your clothes look contemporary (you can now buy them in Zara, too).
These days I get the point of dressing appropriately for the conditions, but these boots are pressing fashion buttons, too. If you’ve ever had a Moon Boot crush (the Seventies snow shoes are back, though leave them to your daughters) or drooled over a Yeti faux fur boot (last seen on Kate Moss), the Scandi Boot gives you that same frisson of edge, without being gimmicky.
They have that no-nonsense style that makes Copenhagen fashion editors among the most photographed in the world. They’re not hard and Terminator-y like some rain boots, but they’re just hard enough. I love the tabs and the fact that they’re moulded like solid Chelsea boots rather than sawn-off Wellingtons and raise you out of the mud on 3cm soles. No more stunted legs, thank you.
Cropped leather boots are still doing a roaring trade, as are longer wellies. But if you want to look January 2023, you’re going for a Scandi.
The cool look of the moment is Scandi Boots poking out under cargo trousers or cream needlecords with a sweeping coat, sunglasses and a brightly coloured scarf.
The most covetable brands (apart from Bottega Veneta’s puddle boots, which would set you back over £500) are Ganni (£ 107, larizia. com), Ugg (£85, ugg.com) and Tretorn. Tretorn’s Chelsea classic rubber boots with contrasting elastic panels (£88 in the sale, gb.tretorn.com) are selling like hot cakes. The sales is the clever time to buy your Scandi boots — then you’ll wear them all year.
I also like Lotta from Stockholm’s Ankle Welly in olive green (£39.50, lottafromstockholm. co. uk), which have a punchy tread sole.
It’s good to get your boots in olive or anything but Hunter Green now we’re talking about fashion wear, not country essentials. The fashion influencers, when they’re not wearing Bottega Veneta’s puddle boots in bright orange, are branching out into brights like Ugg’s Drizlita boots in canary yellow or acid green (£85), although we don’t need to go that far.
At the other end of the scale, Marks & Spencer does a good plain black rubber Chelsea boot (£45, marksandspencer. com) with a lowish heel.
I’m aware that lots of you will be wedded to longer boots and to you I say, ‘Perfect’. This is the season — when Chanel sent endless rubber boots, including waders, down the catwalk — to get into rubber whatever your taste.