Dan's Papers - August 31, 2007 - These Boots are Made For Walking

You've seen it. You saw it that last day when it was so hot you had to keep blinking because the sweat was dripping down past your eyelashes. You ran from beach to air-conditioned car to air-conditioned house. Then you had to leave the air-conditioned house to get back in your air-conditioned car to go to town to buy more milk, and, as you left the store, milk in hand, you saw it. You saw someone, some girl, some woman, strolling down the sidewalk through the ninety-seven degree air, wearing winter boots. Winter boots?! Yes, you were not having heat-induced hallucinations. She was actually wearing winter boots with her oh so thin, oh so cool, lightweight, cotton sundress.

This summer, women have been strutting around everywhere in summer shorts, summer tank tops, summer dresses, and summer skirts- all as usual- but this year they have been pairing these items with heavy winter boots. Their feet have been inhumanly stuffed into thick, un-breathable rain goulashes and artic-looking fur-trimmed boots.

But now fall is fast approaching, and feet will finally be comfortable in their thick, furry soles. If boots were that big this summer, just imagine how huge they will be when they are actually useful and weather appropriate. To meet the huge boot craze that is expect this autumn, the fashion world has lined up a defense of a huge array of styles.

One common factor, if there can be said to be one, uniting these various styles is, as Todd Shapiro of Hampton Shoe Vixen describes it, funk. "Traditional plain Jane styles are still out there, but what people are looking for is a little funkiness," says Shapiro. Funkiness can come in the form of color or in the form of style. Take goulashes for example. The traditional black of these rubber rain boots is now one of the least popular colors you see on the street. Even the iconic bright yellow, the kind that comes with matching rain slicker, is passé. Blacks, yellows and neutrals have been replaced by a rainbow of colors. People are strutting around in boots in aqua, fuchsia, bright orange, hot pink, Kelly green, etc. They are even wearing all these colors at once. Rainbow stripes and multi-colored poke-a-dots abound. And for as many colors you can spot, there are possibly even more deigns and patterns. There is an abundance of plaid and a wealth of checkerboard. There are small, patterned rosebuds and wild splatters of floral explosions. There are innocent looking duckies and whales and fish. There are pairs of boots dotted with skulls. These pairs can be sitting on the shelf along side pairs dotted with angels. Basically, if you pick an animal, a fruit, a plant, or a symbol, you can find it on a pair of goulashes somewhere.

But there is more in-store for fall than just goulashes. As a rule of thumb for dealing with these other coming fall styles, expect the unexpected. What is exotic is what is in store for fall as Shapiro predicts. Exotic looks in leather and in lace will be big. As Shapiro notes, exotic looks were once only available to the very wealthy. Now more inventive styles and materials have become easier to produce, and therefore easier for the average boot-wearer to afford. People are no longer buying one pair of all-purpose boots to last them through the weather. Instead, they are buying boots to last as long as their outfit, as long as moment's fashion. Shapiro's average customer buys 2-3 pairs at a time when shopping in his store.

This could be a byproduct of the somewhat widely held idea that shoes really do make the outfit. The cowboy boot, another trend that is gearing up for fall, is a perfect example of this. Likely over half the people on the street are wearing jeans and some version of a t-shirt at any given time. But add a pair of cowboy boots, and suddenly the outfit is a fashion statement. The ensemble becomes unexpected and unusual just by the telltale little pointed leather toe sticking out from the hem of the jeans. But as with other boot styles, the cowboy boot will not be your standard, cattle-herding issue. They too will have an element of funk to them. Already cowboy boots popping up in wild colors and with added bits of bling. Also look for them in shocking winter white, the unexpected favorite in boot color for the cold season. This hot white, as Shapiro muses, is all part of the desire to "put some kick in your boots" this fall.