wellies as high fashion

Pirate:
This fashiony bloggy thing seems to be going well so far, but you know, good things always start in an inspired way. I fear that soon we'll have to resort to dirty tricks. Like buying copies of Vogue. Ew.

So, while I was in Europe (tm), I saw a lot of people wearing wellie boots. With regular clothes. Like this.


I'm used to seeing wellies in their natural setting. They're big ugly utility boots - they're meant for tramping around in the pond. Like these.
Understand, I was in Scotland, and this is not dry high desert territory, it's a wet, wet place. The good wellies are made in Scotland - they're made for survival. People are forced to wear wellies as part of their daily life - you know, to get to the coffee... However - I was not roaming the highlands or out trodding the bogs when I observed said shoe occurrence. I was in Edinburgh proper - an urban environment. Why, oh why, would people be wearing their wellie boots, with regular clothes, in the Cit-tay?

To their credit, these were not ordinary wellies, these were fun and unusual. And interesting (like these). They were so good, I'd almost (I SAID ALMOST) be tempted, you know, if a pair of these fell into my hands...


Hell, even Dame Westwood makes some fab Wellies

I'm almost sold on the idea - except for the fact that, they are Big, Heavy, Non-Breathing Rubber Boots. Not sexy. What is up with the wellie boot casual wear trend? Am I just that much of a desert rat that I don't get it?

I swear I've seen jCrew capitalize on this fashion nonsense before. And I see they've got some really good ones up for grabs right now, including the highly respectable Hunter boot made in Scotland. I think I've worn a pair of these, though not in this colour...


Moi:
Tis, indeed, nonsense. The thing is, the Wellie, it is a beautifully built boot. I have had my very same pair for 15 years now. Not a thing wrong with them. But they are for the garden. For mucking out stalls . . . I hate the appropriation of “working person” style into the world of high fashion To me, it seems very condescending. Unless you’re calf deep in shit, mud, rain, or snow, forgo the Wellies.

Pirate:
Hm. Good point. Working boot appropriated for street fashion does seem condescending. There's a history lesson in there, somewhere.

My spouse has a friend still in the UK who is kind of a girl - well, he's a girl about shopping. He's all man in all the other ways. Anyways. He and I were speculating that wearing the wellies as streetwear was perhaps the only way one could ever wear the beautiful wellies. I mean, if you splash out on some pretty cool and fabby boots, you want to show them off. And you can't show them off to everyone if you're saving them only for the odd wet day tramping around in the country, right?

Perhaps he and I are thinking too practically.

Moi:
Sometimes a cute boot is just a cute boot. There are always these:


Pirate:
Ho. Lee. Shit. That does change the color of the whole wellie thing. I suppose if it ever rained here, I could picture me swanning around town in something like this...No?


I for one cannot picture mucking stables in anything *except* those ugly green ones.

Moi:
Ooooo, you said "swanning around." My favorite two-word phrase, next to, "Dinner's served." and "Louboutin sale." Dang it. I guess you could spend a day merrily swanning about in Wellies, provided you were: A. Swanning about someplace you normally wouldn't be – London, Paris, New York, Munich, you know, anywhere were it actually rains on a regular basis, and B. You were wearing an outfit just as offhandedly insouciant as the one in the photo above.

Okay, we have got to get out of Europe and back to the states. I'm beginning to use French words.