Because you can't have depths without surfaces.
Linda Grant, thinking about clothes, books and other matters.
Pure Collection Ltd.
Net-a-porter UK

Saturday 8 December 2007

Uggs, an apology

In the past I have had scathing things to say about Uggs, and of course quite right too. The sight of teenage girls in London this summer shuffling along Oxford Street in bare legs and shapeless pieces of dead sheep on their lower extremities, was enough to make me want to shake them and cry, is the world of Jimmy Choo dead to you? But teenage girls' insistence on wearing Bad Shoes, shoes their mothers would not wear, is a fact of sartorial education. They have to pass through it. A decade ago, you couldn't get the girl out of trainers.

In my own life, things are moving in a disturbing direction. I have always gloried in Difficult Shoes, I'm a high-heel girl, but for somewhat serious (though not life-threatening) medical reasons with which I will not bore you, I am now forced to consider the comfort of my feet. Euw, as the Americans say. Really forced, for in Difficult Shoes I can no longer walk, which is not to say that I cannot balance, it is that after ten minutes I start limping.

a pair of my Difficult Shoes

And so I came to the catalogue of the Celtic Sheepskin Company, from which I reluctantly bought some slippers, and found that I was spending the day walking on a thick sheepskin rug. After a lot of nervous equivocation, I bought a pair of mid-calf length boots with ribbon laces.

Last Saturday my nephew, known to you as Off Tha Cuff, came round and pronounced them cool. I asked if I looked as if I was going to Glastonbury, and he said, cuttingly, 'No, you don't look like someone who goes to Glastonbury.'

What has now happened is that the Celtic Sheepskin Company has become a guilty addiction and I have bought another pair of their boots.

I got them in black

I am prepared to state they have pushed the boundaries of style and you could hardly call these Uggs at all (indeed legally you aren't allowed to).

I save my Difficult Shoes for parties now. I am determined my sheepskin feet will not leave the neighbourhood. But in no circumstances will this lead to Crocs.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Linda - it's good to see that you know where the line is in the sand and all that. Actually, the boots with the ribbons are rather cute and the ones you bought in black remind me of early 1960s "apres ski" boots. I think they will look very fetching with your leather jacket.
A lot of us (me included)have to grapple with the "comfort vs. high style" issue with regard to shoes. It may be that we over-indulged in what we used to call "toad stickers" in our youth and now hobble about with hammer toes and other after-effects of this sort of "Chinese foot binding", or, aging bones and ligaments are not providing their accustomed support. Either way, it's one of those reminders of aging that are not fun at all. Now that we may have the money to indulge ourselves in expensive shoes, we can no longer wear them in comfort. Sigh.
Another lesson in "take care of your feet when you are young and they will take care of you when you are no longer young."

materfamilias said...

I recently posted on a pair of Uggs I surprised myself by buying -- they look nothing like the Uggs I know -- more like a Blundstone boot with a sheepskin cuff. Obviously not for wearing to parties (!), but much better for negotiating snowy sidewalks than a heel -- and as you admit, that sheepskin lining is pretty wonderful.

Anonymous said...

"Euw?" Haven't heard it, even in California, where I live. But I do hear "Ew," usually from a woman who has just discovered something disgusting on the soles of her Uggs. Men, too, have been heard to use "Ew" but only ironically.

Sorry about your feet. I hope you can find magically comfortable beautiful shoes for parties. If you do, let us all know.

dana said...

Another rule crosses over from parenting to fashion: never say never.

My four year old daughter is a big fan of ewwwww, generally in reaction to whatever I've slapped onto her dinner plate. She's about the only person I know who says that, unless you count some of her colleagues at day care.

And those are knockout velvet embroidered platform wedges. Gorgeous.

Thomas said...

You can wear whatever boots you want, but whenever I see those on men I want to rip them off their feet.

Mopsa said...

Yes! I KNEW I wasn't the only one, and there is a new pair on my xmas present list as my current pair of lovelies are rather sad from almost daily wear this year (OK, I took them off in August). But those embroidered wedgies are lovely. Pop them on when you're seated.

ugg boots said...

Ugg Boots are very much popular in USA. I recently buy 3pairs of UGG Boots from USA big shopping mall. there are no shipping charges included and also no hidden costs added into it.

UGG Boots