RUSSIAN BOOTS AND WINTER

Shannon News, 1 June 1926, Page 3

RUSSIAN BOOTS AND WINTER

Wintcr has come, out its expected partner, the Russian Boot, is lagging far behind. Falling sheets of rain, muddy pools and ripping winds are the elemental conditions for the reign of the bizarre footwear. Those young ladies of Dunedin who have Russian boots in heir wardrobes must have opened ch e mirrored door yesterday and eyed the latest in boots with a desire to irotect their silk stockings from those dirty splatterings from the roads. But it takes courage to step before the spotlight of the public and walk unblishingly and seemingly unconsciously, along the street with the whispered comments of the elderly lady out shopping, the man about town, and even the small boy, rumbling in one’s ears. And that happens when anybody dons radical, unconventional attire. What the public l hinks and . says is to the gentler sex what Beecher’s Brook is to the Grand National competitors. It is an obstacle at which they baulk or crash at the landing. Few can clear it. So the wardrobe door was . closed and locked on the Russian ' boots, They are not the rage in Dunedin, and until the tide of popularity rolls in the owners apparently will not lake them out of the rack. Only two girls have been seen wearing the Russian boots in Dunedin Sales are reported by the retailers, but not a pair were in sight on the streets of the city yesterday. Perhaps the wet weather will popularise the latest creation, for inquiries are being made for them in the shops.

Unpopular as yet, the Russian boot ' has a chance still of coming into its own. Ever has Fashion’s latest been sponsored by a few. The rest follow. as witness the heads of shingled hair everywhere. But the Russian boot comes with the reputation as a “craze” which had short life in Paris and London.