Thursday, January 19, 2012

These Boots are Made for Walking...

I wonder if Betty van den Betsy's spread sheets include footwear? The Great Betty really had a thing for shoes.  All kinds of shoes, expensive Italian sandals, wellies for the country, court shoes for the occasional night out and boots for inclement weather.

I own exactly one pair of boots. They could be called 'sturdy lace-ups', but to be brutally honest, they are hiking boots. They get the job done. They get the job done while wearing pants. While wearing pants and walking in nature.

While fine for walking in snow or dirt, Betty Debbie is unlikely
to win any fashion awards wearing in these babies anywhere else.

Here in Washington State we've been having a cold snap.  Not just cold, but also snowy.  By the time I was dressing for church on Sunday morning we had a couple of inches of the white stuff. Not much you say?  True, but I am much more accustomed to my precipitation being in a liquid, not frozen form. Which is why my wardrobe doesn't run towards dress boots.  I do have plenty of sensible-ish heels, but sadly, none of them are snow friendly - either they have open toes or the soles are slicker than a Dutch architect. I was having a crisis, not of faith, but of fashion.  My options were severely limited...I ended up wearing some shoes that I only wear with pants. Turned out that I made a wise choice to go 'sensible' - by the time we left church I had to walk through 4 or 5 inches of snow - no way would my feet have stayed dry in any of my heels.
A 'step' up from hiking boots, but not a very large step.
I'm willing to concede the need to expand my shoe horizons...if Daisy Olivia Francesca Hawkins-fforde can drool over fancy footwear, I can at least give boots a chance.

The view out my back door today - I won't be doing any
shoe shopping until the roads are clearer.
For you readers who live in cold climates: What is your footwear of choice when wearing a dress while it's snowing?

Dressy enough to wear with a skirt or pants? I think so.

Ready boots? Start walking.

5 comments:

  1. I have managed to make it through four Colorado winters without "dressy" winter boots. Yes, there have been a few Sundays where I ended up with wet toes. A few where I've worn my pretend Uggs and changed when I got in the building. Luckily, the walkways get shoveled pretty thoroughly. I have a problem with boots, I can't afford the ones I like. I also have a weird foot size vs. calf size disparity. The boot around my calf doesn't seem to agree with my foot size.

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  2. Thank you, Betty Debbie, for planting that song in my head. I think I threw out my last pair of boots last year because 1. they gave me blisters 2. they were not waterproof. Don't think they ever were, although they were supposed to be. My "slidproofest" shoes, strangely enough, are a pair of black dress shoes (to be worn with slacks) with a nice bit of heel, not quite as high as in your long black boot above. Their soles have the teensiest bit of a profile, you can hardly call it that, it's just a gritty kind of pattern, but it gives you the best grip. I don't wear dresses anymore.
    Betty Anonymous

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  3. If the snow is over two or three inches, I do not even pretend to dress up. I pull on my rubber-tread-soled, furry-something-lined Canadian boots, mid-calf length, and off I charge. In cities, once the salt gets spread around, or the sun pops up, everything starts to melt and every intersection develops a lake at each corner, and it is just bone-headed to pretend you can ford those things in anything the least bit dressy without getting cold, wet feet and big white salty-watery lines across your boots. My snow boots are too warm to wear indoors, so I have to change when I get to work/church/party.

    I also have hiking boots, ankle boots I wear almost every day (jeans, slacks, sometimes even skirts) from mid-September until mid-May, and glamorous almost-knee-high suede boots that can't be exposed to humidity, never mind actual precipitation. I do not own Wellingtons. I agree with Henrietta Lucy that boots are a boon to a wardrobe.

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  4. I have limited foot fashion possibilities. A collapsed tendon keeps me in MedicalCrocs
    And only when the snow is coming through the holes (like today) do I switch to my
    CrocBoots. They pinch my toes but I need a size W 11 1/2 and the biggest the boots come is 11.

    Oh for the days when I could wear the pretty stuff. But walking takes priority! The best I can do is buy the pretty colors!

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  5. OOOOps my CrBoots aren't showing. Okay, try this!
    CrocsBoots

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