How to match your boots to your hemline
Hello, my name is Lisa, and I haven’t seen my legs since last June. That was the holiday in Greece. Since then, somehow it’s always been trouser weather.
My deep background research (as Michael Wolff would probably call it) confirms this is a widely shared phenomenon. Trousers are the gods of the modern wardrobe, especially now we’ve moved on from the any-colour-so-long-as-it’sblack-and-any-style-solong-as-it’s-skinny era. Pink or sequinned, checked or appliquéd. Cropped or floor grazing, slouchy or high-waist paper bags – practically all trousers look current, except, predictably, the very skinny black ones. Meghan Markle made headlines when she wore a wide-leg black pair on official duty this week
– Royals usually stick to skirts, but such is the power of trousers.
But – and I never thought I’d say this – sometimes you want to wear something that categorically isn’t trousers, or a jumpsuit, or a trouser suit. Maybe I’ve been watching too much Feud and The Crown.
But I’m pining for my legs. This will require a skirt. Some of my colleagues in the fashion department ventured so far as to say they’re dying to wear dresses again. What’s holding us back, we agreed, is our lack of footwear options, especially those of us who hate wearing tights – which seems to be most women I know. (So who’s buying all those tights and keeping aloft the £320million a year UK hosiery industry?)
We’ve all got the basic ankle boot option that works with a 7/8th trouser. But what about the perfect knee boot to wear with pleated skirts – a boot that isn’t too saggy (always unflattering) or baggy (high risk of tangling when there’s a lot of fabric involved), but isn’t so tight it makes the leg look like an umbilical cord?
And where’s the boot that works with a pencil skirt? That would need to be slim, neat and ending just below the knee, since anything taller looks bulky under the hem. Clearly what we’re looking at here is a capsule of different boots to cover all eventualities. The white ankle boot? Never in a million years – until recently. These days, the white ankle boot is what Claire Hornby, founder of the very customerfocused Me+em label calls a wardrobe bridger – by which she means white ankle boots make all your over-familiar but basically sound standbys look fresh and possibly even edgy again.
There’s more to consider. Patent or satin boots look very chic with velvet and tweed clothes, as does suede. Glossy leather boots are an all-rounder, but particularly handy when you want to elevate denim. This winter there are lots of stretch velvet boots around – I like these with leather skirts or trousers, as it softens the dominatrix effect.
And what about overthe-knee boots? Contrary to evidence in some quarters, these aren’t just for the Brigitte Macron short-skirt wearer. They look good under longer, floaty dresses, so as well as providing some much-needed warmth, will extend the wearing potential of some of your summer pieces. Soft suedes with a little, but not too much stretch, look best.as for trousers and skirts that end around the shin? Ideally you want a boot that’s streamlined, calf-slimming and long enough so that it won’t get tangled with the hems and avoids any gap – unless you’re tall and your legs are sufficiently slender to look good with a sliver of skin showing between your hemline and the top of your boots.
Or you can go with the V-cut front shoe-boot. But again, that probably requires tights when it’s very cold (try M&S’S 180 denier Heatgen tights, £15, marksandspencer.com, in charcoal, which is less harsh than black. They are brushed inside to make them less itchy).
There are evening boots, too. A glittery or jewelled pair can make an otherwise sombre black trouser suit look partyready. You could even wear them with some thermal socks and no one will be any the wiser.