THE ANKLE BOOT: TO WEAR OR NOT TO WEAR

by Bradford Bankhead

All fall I have been back and forth and back and forth about the ankle boot. I am not going to lie to you, when I first saw the boot it brought back painful flashbacks of my Sam and Libby
ankle cowboy boot a la Jessie Spano from Saved by the Bell (you know you had a crush on Zack). Clearly, my fashion sense is something that I put time and effort into and was not something that I was born with. But I digress, back to the boot question about to purchase or not to purchase. I figured, why not (shocking I know)? Frankly, if all else fails and I look as silly as I feared I might then I can just wear them with jeans and no one has to know that they
stop at the ankle.
I must tell you, before I went shopping I did some looking on the internet to see just exactly how this boot was supposed to be worn. What I found was you can wear them with anything: skirts, tights, leggings, pants, the whole bit. For the most part they can function and update the stuff you already have in your closet (which is a huge plus for me).
However, if I am giving that much responsibility to a pair of shoes (that is to make me look stylish, sophisticated and utterly fashionable all at the same time) then I need the shoes to be
fairly unique. So the basic black will not due for me. In order to test this out, I put on my leggings and a mini-dress (that way I can check the boots out with leggings and a dress and bare legs) because what looks good on the internet does NOT always look so hot on me.
Today I have an accomplice in my search, my friend Stacy who is in from out of town. She has been to The Summit but never to the Galleria so off we go. First stop Belk, the selection was okay, as I said, if you are going to rock the ankle boot you it must make a statement. In the shoe department I found a lot of Jessica Simpson (who by the look of all her purple patent leather is getting her inspiration from strippers these days), Rampage, and some miscellaneous brands that I had never really heard of, but nothing that was 'exactly' what I was looking for. Stacy and I ventured out further into the Galleria.
Our next stop was Nine West, who always has cute stuff and I did find a precious gray suede round toe boot that I liked a lot but was not ready to settle after such a sort search. Our next stop was Macy's which has the MOST RANDOM shoe department I have ever been in. They had everything from Unisa to Kors by Michael Kors,we were most overwhelmed by (and a little bit afraid of) the chaos and made a quick exit. But not before spying a darling pair of Kors silver snakeskin boots that for sure made a statement. (I am just not sure what it was saying.) Tired and bootless we make our exit.
Not to be defeated, off we headed to Brookwood. Were I went into Gus Mayer and found a lovely pair of brown suede Prada boots which were more of an investment than I was willing to make in such a trendy item (Sex in the City was a show people I have a budget). As we had put a huge dent in the afternoon by this point, Stacy and I decided to make one last stop at Betsy Prince before we bid farewell. We walked in and there they were (insert chorus of angels singing AAHHH), beautiful soft suede gray, reasonably priced, stylish and sassy Me Too boots.
They were EXACTLY what I had been looking for!! I sort of had a thing for the grey color after seeing the Nine West boots, and these had a little style that I had not seen on any other pair, they fold over at the top so cute!! Stacy agreed so as of today I am officially the new
owner of ankle boots, Jessie Spano, eat your heart out!

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