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 16 August 2008

The thick/thin of calf are booted

I have these in purple suede from two years ago

Some of us are doomed from birth with chunky calves and there is nothing you can do about it. Indeed, sweating on the treadmill will only bulk those muscles up. So for decades knee length boots were only shangrila to me. There were other women whose knee-length boots flapped around their skinny calves but you couldn't expect me to feel sorry for them. At least they had boots.

And then there was Duo which has their Autumn range just in. You pick the boots you like, take a tape measure round your calf, measure at the widest point, fill in your shoe size, and there you are - matchstick calves or calves like milk bottles, they can fit you.

It's mail order unless you live in Bath or Manchester, where they have a shop, or go to one of their fitting rooms, where they have the full range. They measure you, you try them on, pay and they arrive a couple of days later in the post. Yes, they do ship internationally. I am embarrassed to say how many pairs I have, just let's concede that I've been buying a pair or two a year since I first stumbled across them.

Are they as stylish as boots by Marc Jacobs? No, but I can't have boots by Marc Jacobs.* Every year I manage to find something. There are fifty-eight styles this year.

* A saleswoman at Russell and Bromley told me that fifty per cent of the customers who came in looking for boots, could not find anything wide enough to buy.

NOTE for any of you who are thinking of ordering, I have always found Duo to be a really reputable firm with first class customer service. On one occasion, when I rang them with a problem with Royal Mail who had lost the package, they passed me on to the owner of the company who dealt with chasing it up personally. The sole (ouch) problem I have encountered is that on one occasion I found the shoe fitting of the boots too narrow and they had to be returned. My chief complaint is that I think their styles are always a season or two behind, but if the main lines won't make boots that fit, there's no other option.

10 comments:

Duchesse said...

J Crew also have a number of boots
in "extended calf" size.

Linda Grant said...

Like Gap and Banana Republic and Zappos, J Crew doesn't ship internationally.

Linda Grant said...

Sorry, it does ship to Canada and Japan.

Anonymous said...

Well, no good for boots, alas, but there can be great beauty in curvy, muscular calves as long as they are firm and strong, not flabby.

Look at the elderly ladies who develop stick legs. As long as I keep riding my bicycle everywhere, no danger of that...

I don't get the not-shipping thing either. Remember several US sites, including sites in nearby New England and New York State, that didn't even ship to Canada.

Anonymous said...

This is excellent news and I thank you for sharing it with us. I will definitely pass by Saville Row in the near future. The end of spending my winters salivating at other women's boots could soon be over.

Anonymous said...

I've been looking for boots in the US for five years and haven't found any that fit (affordably). Pelt me with soft tomarrrtoes, ladies, but they're always too wide around the calf and/or ankle. Now, I don't have skinny anything, (wrists maybe)so I've been genuinely bewildered.
Aquatalia boots work but styles aren't always right; I did find a gorgeous pair of soft leather Italian boots in a thrift store in San Francisco but the high heels mean I can wear them only when I leave the house with an escort.
So - for all the wrong reasons, thanks for this useful boot-link, Linda!

Anonymous said...

Thank you Linda - I might actually be able to find boots that are stylish and that fit me this winter. If the Russell and Bromley person is right, shoe manufacturers could double sales if they made boots in wider fittings. I know this would increase production costs, but surely this would be marginal compared to increased profits.

Kelly said...

Yay! I'm so glad you pointed these out. I have the opposite problem, so my boots either crinkle down or spend the day flapping against my legs and looking ridiculous. There are several styles on the site that are EXACTLY what I've been looking for, so it's just a bonus that they'll actually fit me, too!

Anonymous said...

I have just taken delivery of these:
http://www.duoboots.com/products/boots/detail/calf_fitted_boots_everyday/brindisi/7/colour/2/

I ordered them a size too big, and they are currently looking super over grey opaques, a black mini and a nice batwing-type affair. I'm off out in a minute, to go down to town and clomp about.

Hurrah.

Anonymous said...

Broken URL - sorry...

It was http://www.duoboots.com/products/
boots/detail/calf_fitted_boots_
everyday/brindisi/7/colour/2/

sigh.