I'm not sure where the trend for wearing wellingtons as a fashion item, rather than a matter of practicality began. I started noticing it in the autumn: people wearing them on the tube, when it wasn't raining, in – and I suspect you may be ahead of me here – east London. They looked a bit odd, as you're perhaps bound to if you wear a utilitarian item of clothing in a situation where their utility has no end: you might as well be on the Northern line in flippers and a diving helmet.
In fairness, it's not the first time that wellies have become a fashion item. In the early 1800s, they were sported by dandies, Beau Brummel among them, although it's worth noting that the original wellington was made of leather and looked rather dashing: by the time they started to made from rubber, the dandies had abandoned them, leading to the dispiriting conclusion that people who cleaned their shoes with champagne and wore pantaloons may have displayed more sense than their latterday counterparts. In the early 60s, everyone in Russia wore them, largely because there was a government campaign called the Battle For Modesty, which decreed that leather footwear was symbolic of decadent western capitalism and that rubber boots were "Socialism style", and further incentivised everyone by removing leather boots for sale from the shops.
Given that the coalition doesn't yet seem to have done anything similar, I can only conclude the city-dwelling wellington wearer is taking the trend for urban countrywear to a new extreme. Whatever next? Tractors in E2?
• Wellingtons, £24.99, by Office, office.co.uk. All other clothes Alexis' own.
Photograph: David Newby for the Guardian.
