Paleo Retiree writes:
After a week of Hurricane Sandy-caused inconvenience, the Question Lady and I are enjoying a return to normal life. Seldom have dependable electricity and running water (let alone wi-fi) struck us as so wonderful. During the adventure, I made some notes and took some snapz, and I’ll be sharing a few of them over the next couple of days.
First up: Man, was I amazed by the number of young women who, during the bad weather, were going around wearing variations on Wellingtons, the British rain boot. We saw hundreds and hundreds of young women in Wellies. I’d had no idea that these boots had become such a popular style in America. A few examples:
Two questions:
- How on earth do young women all over the country manage to seize on style ideas at the exact same moment? Do they read the same magazines and watch the same TV shows?
- Are young women sheep or what?
Bonus Links
- Wellies get a thumb’s-up from The Manolo. God knows they are pretty cute.
- Wikipedia has a good entry on the history of the Wellington boot.
Blowhard, Esq.
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Uncouth Reflections 
Women all over the world read the same magazines. Everyone who reads fashion magazines and dresses accordingly is a sheep
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“It’s the same thing as raincoats, the prettier they are, the uglier. Boots are boots. They’re here otherwise your feet get wet. It’s appalling how many women fell for those tootsy “Puss and Boots” boots when the boot craze first hit… Get some black rubber boots that look like the ones firemen wear (they’re cheap). Wear them to the fanciest of balls, the grubbiest of dogfights. Wear them all winter long. Your feet will stay dry and you will stay chic, I promise.”
— Barbara Johns Waterston, “Pull Yourself Together” (1967)
I wore for many seasons a pair of the plainest black rubber boots until the rubber tore, but lately only cutesy ones can be found, or ones bearing the “Hunter” label. So for the last three years, during inclement weather I wear rubber soled, black leather Ferragamo boots, and they’re great.
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>>Everyone who reads fashion magazines and dresses accordingly is a sheep.>>
Pardon me, but what a gross and ignorant blanket statement to make. Fashion magazines serve a purpose, and that purpose is to disseminate ideas and sell clothing, but that concept has been around for almost 200 years. Just because magazines these days are more accessible to the public than say, “The Delineator” was in the 1890s, does not mean that everyone who thumbs through one in 2012 is a “sheep.” If you don’t like “Vogue” or the current fashion industry for other (justified) reasons, then feel free to critique it with clear examples, but the fashion press serves a very important purpose, and if it didn’t exist, you wouldn’t be wearing that lovely sweater that you found at .
As for Paleo’s original question, I have found that the rainboot thing among women my age has more to do with living in the city that requires lots of walking than anything else. I lived in Florida my whole life, where it rains every other day year round, and no one I knew owned a pair of Wellies. But I noticed them as soon as I moved to NYC four years ago, and I really think it is because our commute is mostly on foot here. When you have a car, you can throw in a change of clothes/shoes/whatever for later and not have to carry them around, but in the city, women seem to prefer wearing a cute pair of boots all day instead. I’ve personally gone all four years without buying a pair, but I keep telling myself I need to get some.
As for the topic of fashion sheep in general, look at it this way: Ever since the dawn of “Fashion” in the 13th and 14th centuries, upper class people have looked to their country’s royalty as a source of inspiration for their choices in clothing. In fact, in many cases, you were encouraged to straight-up copy, line for line, the prevailing hairstyle, trims, etc. of any given year. This wasn’t a bad thing because you were EXPECTED to dress exactly like the Queen/King/King’s favorite mistress if you were fortunate enough to be in the upper echelons of society. In the U.S., our royalty are our celebrities, obviously. In general, our fashion culture is disseminated through celebrity figures who are dressed by stylists, who work with fashion houses directly. That’s how the structure works. Young people (men and women alike) will probably always want to emulate their “royalty” because imitation is a natural part of adolescence. The only difference is how each successive generation will view this phenomenon, but it’s certainly nothing new.
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rain boots in the rain – what will the womenfolk think of next…umbrellas???
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Jecka, iwasborngood — And yet, although Wellies do have their practical virtues, no one in NYC was wearing them prior to a few years ago despite the fact that Wellies have been an option for decades. Besides, let’s face it, no one (other than sewer workers) in NYC really needs to wear knee-high rubber boots even in the roughest weather. So the omnipresence of Wellies today has nothing (or very little to do) with practicality and everything to do with fashion.
And man oh man are they everywhere. Just yesterday (a clear day, btw): I was sitting in the Apple Store’s theater, two young women said Excuse me and edged by … and both were wearing Wellies. Later that day, The Question Lady and I were walking down a Village sidewalk and had to shift to the side to let a small throng of rowdy young women go by. Four out of five of them were in Wellies.
As for whether young women are sheep where fashion is concerned … I dunno, maybe you either have to be a guy or a woman no longer in her 20s to be amazed by the way girls/young-women everywhere ALL (by which of course I mean “a surprisingly large number”) seem to sporting the one or two or three things that are cute this season. Some summers ago: bellybuttons were everywhere. This fall/winter: Wellies. Where fashions go, a large number of young women do exactly the same thing, and they all do it at the exact same time. If that isn’t what’s usually meant by “sheep,” I don’t know what is.
Feel free, of course, to make cracks and observations about young guys. Or old guys for that matter.
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Everyone, regardless of gender, participates in the fashion system, whether you realize it or not. That shirt you’re wearing right now was selected by you (or whoever bought it) because of many factors of which you will probably never be aware. The famous “cerulean sweater” scene from The Devil Wears Prada applies here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7moay_the-devil-wears-prada-cerulean-swea_fun
I just think it’s simplistic (and sort of deragatory) to call young women “sheep” just because you notice a great number of them openly participating in a system that is marketed to adolescents in particular. Are you a sheep because you buy the latest smartphone/computer/gadget? Or was it marketed to you, and you find its features to be beneficial to you and enhance your lifestyle, as well as how you want to portray yourself to others? It sounds to me like this is just another example of relegating fashion itself into the realm of vapidness and unimportance, and strictly femanine, which it certainly is not. Again, the same wouldn’t be said of people buying the same cool gadget in droves.
I think this is also an issue of confirmation bias. You notice some Wellies on the street, and then all of the sudden that’s all you can see, so everyone must be wearing them. I’ve lived in NYC for 5 years and women have been sporting them for all five, so I’m sure they were fashionable here before I moved to the city. You’re just starting to notice them now. But yes, fashion ideas disseminate very quickly these days, so it is not unheard of for trends to begin and end abruptly. It’s a sociological issue, and much more complex than “they’re just a bunch of sheep.”
*Note: I’m not trying to be contentious or anything. As a fashion historian, I am just constantly fighting to demonstrate fashion’s importance, and it is often a losing battle because “fashion” is too often synonymous with “stupid” in most peoples’ minds. As with anything, it’s so much more complex than most people care to believe, and I’m very passionate about it.
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i’ve never heard anyone refer to them as “wellies”. here, in new orleans, we call them “shrimp boots”, de riguer for any practically dressed fisherman. women took to wearing them at jazz fest because it’s known to get muddy and only a tourist would brave bourbon street sludge in deck shoes or crocs. shrimp boots being only slightly less offensive to the eye than the two aforementioned styles, the idea that anyone might consider them fashionable struck me as downright funny. though many local boutiques feature somewhat more stylish versions of this ugly, but steadfast staple (mine sport fleur de lis), it never occurred to me that they had gained popularity for any reason other than their ability to keep your feet dry in nasty weather. however, a quick google search may have uncovered the unintended result of an effective publicity tool:
http://www.myneworleans.com/core/pagetools.php?pageid=9204&url=%2FNew-Orleans-Magazine%2FJuly-2006%2FNEWSBEAT-Shrimp-boots-to-the-rescue%2F&mode=print
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Jecka — On the one hand you’re preaching to the converted. I’ve been in the culture-observing game for decades, I’ve got friends in the fashion biz (and the fashion-journalism biz), my wife has written for fashion magazines, and at one point in the ’90s I was offered a job as an articles editor at Harpers Bazaar. I lose track of current trends for seasons at a time, but the fashion thang generally isn’t a big mystery to me.
On the other hand I think your talk of a “fashion system” is a bit off. It seems to me that only a prof would look at such a crazy, ego-addled, trend-dependent, big-money/big-chances, high-stress field and describe it as a “system.” “Desperate hodgepodge” seems more like it, at least to me.
I know what you mean when you say that we all take part in fashion — it’s a good point in a Zen sorta way, and I’m partial to it myself. But practically speaking, most people don’t consider clothing themselves via Old Navy or The Gap to be taking part in anyone’s “fashion system.” Many Gap consumers (for eg) think of themselves as opting out of fashion. And that’s an attitude that the fashion world itself shares. As one fashion-world friend explained to me, as far as the biz is concerned, The Gap (etc) deals in clothes as commodities, not as fashion. So both in general usage as well as in how the fashion business itself conceptualizes things, “fashion” is what most people think of it as: the trends of the season. It’s about what’s in the fashion and style mags, and about what the ladies with money and fashion-consciousness are up to: dazzle, change, fads. The focus this season is on … Blue! Or fluffy scarves! Or over-the-knee boots! Or leggings! Love this season’s patterned stockings, btw.
Anyway: sure, the trend for Wellies is a fashion. The young women in the Village weren’t wearing them five years ago, at least not in any large numbers, while this year they’re everywhere. According to this recentish article, sales of Wellies are up almost 150% over the last couple of years.
http://columbianewsservice.com/2012/03/urban-new-yorkers-embrace-hunting-style/
As for young women being sheep … Maybe you have to be a guy or a woman who’s no longer in her 20s for the idea to hit home, but herd-like behavior among young women where fashion is concerned is a tendency that’s widely noticed. Suddenly, ALL the girls are wearing Uggs, or sweeping their hair back in the same way. Would they be doing this if they (ie., many of them) weren’t somewhat sheep-like? Here’s one of many online discussions about the topic:
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110328202113AAnNZiF
But something’s irking you, and that’s interesting. What is it? Do you think the fashion biz doesn’t get enough respect? I dunno, I’m divided. On the one hand, there’s an awesome amount of creativity and talent in fashion, and (along with zillions of other people) I love how designers and women manage — year after year — to keep the ladies looking appealing and provocative. I certainly consider fashion/couture/whatever a major art form. On the other hand, it’s also a big, cold business, it’s often sleazy and exploitative, and a lot of the ideas it comes up with are laughable. It’s a lot like showbiz in that way — amazing and ridiculous at the same time. It doesn’t need a lot of defending, and it can bear some irreverence. Hey, a comparison: If someone refuses to let her entertainment-viewing be dictated by what Hollywood and its publicists say is Hot Now, that can be a good thing, no? (I’m a fairly serious moviebuff, for instance, yet I barely now what’s currently in the theaters. I chase down crazy old movies on DVD or Netflix instead.) So why shouldn’t the same thing hold true where the fashion biz goes? If a woman says to the fashion biz “Screw you, I’m going my own way,” why isn’t that at least potentially a cool thing? But maybe I’m missing your point …
iwasborn — In NOLA they’re “shrimp boots”? That’s fun to learn, tks. The version we’re seeing in NYC right now is based on the British rain boot called the Wellington, fondly known as “Wellies.” Wellies have been around for decades — I remember them from the ’60s, and I see in Wikipedia that they date from 1955. But they’ve become a striking big-city fashion in the U.S. only in the last couple of years. They certainly keep a foot dry, but functionally speaking they’re a lot more than anyone in NYC really needs. Water here, even on a nasty day, rarely gets deeper than your ankle and can nearly always be hopped-over or walked around. It’s really all about the look, and about certain country-squire, earthy-aristocrat overtones they seem to convey. (In real life and back in the day, Wellies were often worn by working men in tough jobs …)
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Hey, a blog devoted entirely to young women wearing Wellies:
http://juliewearswellingtons.wordpress.com/
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Thank you so much for your plug.
Julie
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Wellies are big in Venice: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/11/venice-under-water/100403/
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I am so sad. I just spent a very long time composing a response to PR, and then somehow closed out the browser right before I pressed “send.” Drat. Blowhard, Esq. had earlier suggested that we meet up sometime in person, so I’ll take my bumbling typing skills as an indication that we should…because I don’t have the energy to type that out again! *shakes fist at technology*
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Oh sympathies to you. I *rage* whenever the computer loses a chunk of my prose. Are you in NYC? If so, let’s definitely meet up for coffee some day.
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When fashion comes up, please have someone record and transcribe the conversation.
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(Posting from my phone) Yes, I am indeed in NYC! Coffee and fashion meetup sounds fabulous.
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