Last summer, Lynsey Dargue was wearing a knockout pair of shoes while out at a bar with friends, when suddenly the sky opened up and poured torrential rain. With no umbrella and no sign of the downpour stopping anytime soon, there was only one alternative. Dargue, a financial conference organizer, kicked off her £100 designer stilettos and ran like the wind for the shelter of her car.
“Despite having lived in London my whole life, I still haven’t got into my head that it’s going to pour down without warning,” Dargue says.
Like Seattle and Portland, London’s capricious weather is famous for sudden downpours and gray overcast skies. Do an internet search on London’s climate and mostly what you find are warnings and cheery content about unpredictable temperatures and sporadic showers. Stroll the city’s uneven historic cobblestones and cement sidewalks during one of those cloudbursts and you’re likely to immerse your feet in streams of icky brown surface water. It’s all enough to make a well-shod woman with more than eighty pairs of fabulous shoes embrace a pair of sturdy rubber boots. Almost.
Despite the ever-burgeoning fashion craze of colorful rubber rain boots modeled after their more famous and older cousin, the Wellington, shoe-crazy women in some rainy climes grimace at the suggestion of wearing them. In London, it’s better to look good than to stay dry.
Yes, wellies are cute. From quirky patterned gumboots to hip limited edition galoshes, they are not just for country life anymore. These rubber feet-protectors are far more fantastic than anything the Duke of Wellington could have envisioned when he asked his trusted boot maker to fashion him something a little funky. But today’s wellies aren’t exactly glamorous. Have you ever taken a whiff of them after a few hours of wearing them? And would you wear them on a hot date?
“No way! I don’t care if it’s pouring down raining. I’m not wearing wellies.” Dargue says. “Have you noticed they really hum? They really smell! Wellingtons… have one of the most disgusting smells ever. Even with a pretty pattern, how can you wear Wellingtons with lovely pencil skirt?”
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