English Boots (Almost)

Last week I saw this post on Put This On, about these English-made Chelsea boots that were on sale at Brooks Brothers for half off the original price, with a code for another 15% off because they were in the clearance section. The final price was $224, around 60% off the original price.

The idea of a pair of made-in-England shoes at such an appealing price was very tempting. I added a pair to the shopping cart, pondered it for 30 minutes or so, then bought them, knowing that I could return them to the Brooks Brothers store if they didn't fit.

During the pondering period, I thought about the fact that they were only available in standard (medium) width, which, depending on the shoe, frequently doesn't work for me. I decided to compensate by going up a half-size, which sometimes works.

The shoes arrived on Tuesday, and they were quite beautiful. The leather was soft and lustrous; the heels had a couple dozen small copper nails in neat rows. English shoes tend to have tapered, somewhat pointy toes, and these did, which worried me. But I put them on and found that they felt roomier than they looked like they were going to be. The half-size up seemed to give me enough room up front, but I was concerned about their appearance.

They seemed too dressy to be casual, yet too casual to be dressy. I thought about the situations when I would be most likely to wear them, and the clothes I would be likely to wear in those situations. I wondered how much wear I would really get out of them. I looked down at my feet and thought that the boots looked bad with the dark jeans I was wearing that day.

Ultimately I decided that there was no need for me to spend $225 on shoes of questionable usefulness. If I could buy a pair of Alden plain-toe bluchers for that price, I'd have no hesitation about keeping them because I know I'd wear them all the time, and aesthetically I think I prefer the rounded, slightly blunt shape of that sort of American shoe anyway. The boots were returned to the store.

(By the way, if you're interested in this style of boot, I did find an American-made Chelsea boot for around the same price; the brand is Neil M and the style name is Portland. But I'm not going to buy them either.)