Thursday 26 October 2017

the search for the platonic boot

I was in Colchester yesterday morning to have my hair cut, before doing the bees, and since I was there I thought I would go into the Clarks shoe shop and try on their desert boots for size.  I adore desert boots, which have to be one of the most perfectly comfortable forms of footwear ever devised, besides being pleasingly androgynous.  I had a pair of Clarks black suede ones for a good twenty years, and wore them with practically everything, jeans, short skirts, long dresses.  I tried not to go out in them on days when rain was forecast, and they repaid me by remaining resolutely uncreased and unshiny.  Then one day the soles came unstuck.

I took them to Timpsons, where the man sucked his teeth and said that you did not see crepe soles very often nowadays, pity as it was very hardwearing, only it was practically impossible to glue.  He would try sticking the soles back on for me if I liked, but he couldn't guarantee the result.  I thanked him but thought that paying shoe repair shop prices for glue that probably wouldn't stick was not worth it, and took them home, where the Systems Administrator mended them with the most likely looking glue in the workshop.  They lasted for a few more outings, and then the soles came unstuck again when I was in the middle of a woodland conservation lecture.  I was afraid that having the soles of my shoes flapping about did not convey a very professional image, and sadly consigned them to the bin when I got home.

Then I kept noticing all the social occasions for which the black desert boots would have been ideal.  Clarks are not the only firm selling ladies' desert boots: Cotton Traders do them, and I have seen them in the Seasalt catalogue, both for less money than Clarks charge.  But I bought some Cotton Traders ones and they were not as good, made out of thicker suede that creased and lost colour along the creases after they had been worn a few times, and cut in a clunkier and altogether less refined style.  It was a case of Accept No Cheap Imitations.

I began to stalk the Clarks website, hoping there would be a mid-season sale, end of season sale or any kind of sale, but no matter what kind of sale it was black suede desert boots did not feature.  In the meantime I read the online reviews, several of which said that the boots were very narrow.  Now I have wide hobbit feet, so narrow is not good.  On the other hand the boots were supposed to be the original classic design, and the last ones I bought over twenty years ago fitted beautifully.

This is why I thought it would be a good idea to try some on in the Clarks shop while I was in Colchester.  It didn't even matter what colour they had, so long as they had a five and a half and a six.  They did not, because as the assistant explained they did not stock ladies' desert boots in the shop.  They had some mens' ones, she added hopefully, which were almost the same, only they did not go down to such a small size.  She showed me the mens' ones, while I wondered quite how this was supposed to help, given she knew I knew what a desert boot was and had owned some before.  I said, mildly, that it seemed odd not to have one of the firm's most classic products available in-store, especially when the website warned that they came up so narrow and people might like to try them on, and that after all Cotton Traders and Seasalt sold them, so it was not as if desert boots were not a thing.  She said brightly that she had seen the Seasalt ones, and that it was true, the Clarks boots did come up very narrow, one of her colleagues had some only she was not wearing them today, and that the nearest Clarks shop that would have any was probably Lakeside or Thurrock, and that she could order me some to try on but I would have to pay for them in advance.  I said that was kind, but I might as well order them online and save another trip to Colchester.

So this morning I ordered some online.  Delivery is free for orders over £50, cheaper than going back to the store to collect them.  If they do not fit I can return them in the shop so I suppose there is some synergy between Clarks' physical and digital presences.  Not very much, though.

No comments:

Post a Comment