Wellington boots are flooding the collections
Wellington boots are back
The autumn/winter menswear collections are always abundant in boots but over recent seasons the footwear has been getting more robust. The genesis likely came in February 2019 as the designer Daniel Lee presented his inaugural runway show for Bottega Veneta. It was heavy on black biker leathers and the kind of boots even Mad Max might deem a little outré. Utilitarian footwear boomed. But even with that acorn, the most prescient fashion minds may have struggled to see where our feet would find themselves today.
Wellington boots are in. Not just regular boots with rubber detailing (although those are in too), but proper puddle-splashers, the kind of boots you’d reluctantly don at a festival; the kind you’d wear to a country pub if you were down from the city and dabbling in a little bucolic fetishisation.
Wellies can be found in the new autumn/ winter collections of Dior and Jil Sander and even Bottega has gone all Good Life with a kneehigh version of its rubber “Puddle" boots. (They’re biodegradable, which doesn’t bode well for anyone planning to wear them in an actual puddle.) But this season’s best wielding of the welly is at Tod’s, which has put traditional country style at the heart of its new collection. “From the beginning, the rubber boot was immediately imagined as an important part of the collection,” says Walter Chiapponi, creative director of the Italian brand. “Since I started doing research, I loved the images of Prince Charles in his hunting gear. He was very elegant and precise, because he was so casual in wearing this kind of simple boot, which made them extremely sophisticated and perfectly camouflaged with the surrounding landscape.”
Before you rush to the cupboard under the stairs to pull out your Hunters, you must remember that this is fashion and there are rules. You can certainly try to incorporate regular, common or garden, non-luxurious wellies into your existing wardrobe, but it takes a deft touch. It’s not just about the material goods, it’s about the energy.
“They must be considered, not as a simple accessory to the look, but definitely part of it,” says Chiapponi. “They must be worn with classic trousers, almost like a reinterpretation of the formal attire. The rubber boot does not spoil the refined taste, but simply adds the relaxed component, for a lifestyle as the maximum expression of style.”
Also, they keep your socks dry.