Shanks for Nothing

My calves measured in at seventeen inches around the largest part. That didn’t seem so bad. Wait, wasn’t Scarlett O’Hara’s waist eighteen inches?

I recruited some co-workers to measure their calves and give mine a little more context. Two other women measured in at seventeen inches. (I think it’s worth noting that the other two seventeen inchers are each at least three inches shorter than me with not an ounce of fat on them, proving that calf size doesn’t necessarily have to do with the size of the rest of your body.) I then measured eleven other people, including one very good-sported man. The average calf size of the DivineCaroline editorial department? 14.5 inches.

From there, I began my boot-shopping journey, starting with Macy’s online. Clicking through the Extended Calf area of their boot section, I noticed that the shank circumference varied from thirteen inches to sixteen inches. I found it interesting that half of our editorial department—normal-sized women, mind you—would have trouble shoving their normal-sized calves into what Macy’s considered an Extended Calf selection. I was especially confused on the low end—why would a thirteen-inch calf ever be considered “extended?” Who was making the call on what constituted “extended,” anyway?

Of my remaining online stops at Nine West, J.Crew, Banana Republic and Zappos, only Zappos had a special area like Macy’s for extended calf boots (called wide calf on Zappos). J. Crew also sells some extended calf boots, but you have to click into the boot detail to see if it’s available .I decided to call the stores to see if they had any wide calf boots available in their retail locations.

A salesclerk at Banana Republic’s flagship store in San Francisco told me that they had larger sizes available online (do they teach them that line in training?), but that the Bianca and Fillipe styles did have a “wider opening.” I asked him if he knew how big that wider opening was, but he didn’t have a clue. “Do you think it would fit a seventeen-inch calf?” I asked. He informed me (minus the conspiratorial whisper this time) that I’d probably need to shop online to find that.