These boots are made for walking ... one Chelsea boot
I started to wear Chelsea boots pretty much as soon as I got to wear long trousers. Other things in life come and go, but Chelsea boots seem to be forever. And, since 1992 I've bought them from just one shop, A K & G Martin-Stone, an independent trader and one of the best men's shoe shops in London. The hugely knowledgable owners can order customised shoes from regular suppliers - in my case, the Alfred Sergeant factory in Northampton. So, at a very reasonable price, I can have the company's slim Chelsea boots in suede, and in a number of colours, or leather, with rubber or leather soles, or else beefed up for the country with those thick rubber soles that look a bit like tyres, and last for ages come mud and rain.
I like Chelsea boots because they are at once traditional and modern, formal and just a little different. I like the way they smooth the transition from shoe to sock, trouser leg and skin, so that, wearing a pair, you will never be found guilty of exposing an unwelcome flash of male leg. Patrick Macnee chose them, in a variety of colours, and in suede, when he played John Steed, the impeccably dressed, and equally impeccably mannered, British secret service agent in The Avengers, the long-running 60s TV series.
I can see why Macnee, who designed many of the outfits he wore in this show, chose Chelsea boots; they would have been very familiar to him and yet, strangely enough, fashionable in an understated way, in the 1960s. Chelsea boots were a spin-off from traditional paddock or jodhpur riding boots, so they were always a bit racy compared with the brogues, semi-brogues, Oxfords and other more formal English gentlemen's shoes, even though their pedigree was impeccably upper crust.
Macnee [b 1922] himself was the son of a racehorse trainer, although he was bought up by his lesbian mother and her lover known to young Patrick as "Uncle Evelyn". At Eton, he was the top schoolboy bookmaker. I bet he wore Chelsea boots.
In the 60s, Chelsea boots became the height - if such a thing can be said of a shoe - of young male fashion when, in 1961, the Beatles ordered a very particular version from the bespoke dance and showbiz shoemakers, Anello & Davide. Founded in 1922, Anello & Davide had made stilettos for Marilyn Monroe and suede brogues for smoother-than-silk David Niven. The Beatles opted for a footwear marriage between Chelsea and Flamenco boots, with pointed toes, a central seam and Cuban heels. They looked a lot better than this sounds. The pop and rock, as well as showbiz fraternity, and sorority, continues to commission stagey and sometimes over-the-top "Beatle boots" from Anello & Davide.
Chelsea boots themselves have easily weathered, and continue to weather, passing fashion. This is not just because of their all-but-timeless looks, but because, with elastic sides, they are also easy to slip on and off, which is especially handy if you happen to travel a fair bit in countries where shoes are unwelcome indoors. Somewhere in my shoeboxes full of prints and negs, I have a photograph, taken by an amused press photographer, showing a pair of my fawn suede Chelsea boots lined up with dozens of pairs of local sandals, and statutory tourist-issue trainers, on the steps of a mosque in Cairo. I wish I could have found it for this blog post. The boots from Northampton appear to be very dignified, and yet, you can't help feeling with something of a cheerful manner and very English sense of humour.
Chelsea boots are a type of footwear rather than the product of a specific designer or maker, and so they tend to vary a bit, some clumsier and clunkier than the ideal, which should be on the right side of slim, effortless and elegant. These are, you understand, shoes to be lived up to.
