Ankle Bootie

I think Nina is talking here about the so-called “shoe-boot”, a boot which ends on or below the ankle, not above it, like my Sandler “Bankers” with ribbon laces.

However, my go-to boots are True Ankle Boots, stopping above the ankle, worn under trousers and jeans. I must have gone through 15 pairs over the past 10 years. Why so many?

I wear them ALL the time. In winter, this might be every day of every week for months.

I am the Despair of Shoes, the Destructor Of Footwear! I don’t know what it is that I do. I just wreck them. I polish them and clean them and store them in boxes and re-sole them… and they repay me by cracking, tearing, getting out of shape and falling apart in the most unexpected ways.

I have wide feet, and any footwear I’m going to have to wear for very long has to be comfortably wide as well. So far, this has meant buying boots which seem to be designed to fall apart in a season. Diana Ferrari SuperSoft boots and shoes fall apart on me quickly and without fail, and I refuse to buy any more of them. Sandler Easy Steps are a bit more robust and are my current everyday pair, rapidly deteriorating. I managed to destroy not one but TWO pairs of Oliver steel-capped safety boots within a few wears, leaving bits of them all over mine sites on two continents like trails of breadcrumbs. Apparently my problem was not wearing them enough! I can’t win!

Aside from my everyday mid-heel ankle boots and a casual flat pair of Camper Spirals, I also keep a pair of Wittner’s Luxe Baby boots on hand (on foot?). They are vertigo-inducing, but sooooo lovely.

Nice, eh?