A Very Wet Spring

My coworker wears plastic rain boots (fake rubber wellies) in all kinds of patterns and bright colors and, since we've been having a wet spring, she's been wearing them every day. She tucks her pants into them and changes into sneakers when she gets to work. It depresses the hell out of me. I am so sick of those things. Bright colored rubber wellies had their appeal for me at one time, about 6 years ago when they first showed up on the scene. That was when everyone went apeshit over that photo of Kate Moss wearing a pair of regular brown wellies with shorts at some muddy UK rock festival. I had a hot pink pair that I bought during a rainy, grey holiday season when I was struggling to make ends meet selling my small hand made leather goods at a little vending kiosk in an indoor marketplace in Soho. They were about $50 or $60 then (this was before they started selling the plastic knockoffs at Ricky's and Payless). I enjoyed sloshing around in them, and they went very well with the items I had to sport every day from my very junior-market accessories line. And, of course, with my trench coat. There's always a trench coat.
Trench coats are something I could never, ever get sick of. I love coats and jackets in general- they offer protection and style at the same time. You can hide under them while showing off your style to the world. Trench coats are my special favorites, having so many cool connotations- from film noir private eyes to sex offenders to punk rock. These days there are so many variations on the basic trench coat, in color and in construction. I own bright colorful patterned ones, some that I wear as dresses (including one that was actually meant to be a dress), cropped sleeved ones, military styled ones, hooded ones, long ones, short ones, belted ones, double breasted, ruffled (but not too many ruffles), swing skirted (but not bubble hemmed)...and I want to keep getting more but must control myself! New York women seem to agree that the more trenchcoats you have the better. We are having a love affair with trenchcoats and I have seen them thrown on over long formal dresses (which is kind of a rich bag lady look and happens to be very fashionable at the moment), with shorts for that flasher look, with scarves or pieces of rope standing in for the belt, in hot pink, bright blue, traffic yellow, pool table green, fire engine red- and of course the ubiquitous khaki and black. Check out some of these trench coats for spring!

Fortunately, another thing all of us New York women seem to be in agreement on these days is the loathesomeness of wellies - be they fake plastic ones from Target or $400 Chanel or Burberry versions. They are in the same league as crocs at this point - even the Doc Martens ones with the rose-printed laminated canvas tops that I wanted to buy a couple of years ago but didn't because someone gave me the heads up that they were very uncomfortable. In fact, I cannot help but notice that many New York women have been sporting anything but practical wet weather foot wear with their trench coats- flat sandals with toe loops, skimpy ballet flats, mules, fancy bejeweled flip flops, open toe pumps...its as if there's a rebellion going on, all those perfectly polished toes being sprinkled with grubby New York puddle splash. Yesterday I saw a woman wearing what looked like a Carolina Herrara raincoat with a boat neck collar and a wide scarf standing in for the belt, standing in the middle of 42nd street in the rain texting with a pair of ankle-strap peep toe platform sandals on her feet, her eyeglasses charmingly sliding down her pert nose. She may have been the cutest girl I'd seen all day. I have to hand it to these gals, clammy city rain between my toes is something that, as yet, I've not been willing to suffer for the sake of fashion rebellion.
When it comes to the ideal wet weather footwear match to all those cute, sexy and serious trench coats, its hard to beat Melissa shoes. These candy-scented PVC shoes are a cult item (my good friend Amber turned me onto them, she owns at least half a dozen pair). This Brazillian company has their own art gallery and magazine, and collaborate with designers like Vivienne Westwood. They come in a multitude of styles (flats, booties, pumps, wedges, oxfords, sandals and more) and textures (shiny, clear,flocked). I own a pair of shiny black PVC booties that I love to wear with all of my trench coats, and I just ordered a pair of blush pink textured PVC Vivienne Westwood ballet flats. So, ladies, we can toss the wellies in the garbage and still keep our toes clean!