Fashionable furry boots
There were more winter boots on view in the Chanel boutique flat matt suede, lined and trimmed with softest sheepskin, and pulling off the near impossible trick of looking both chic and practical at the same time and also strolling through the lobby of the Park Hyatt hotel, just across the Place Vendme. The Park Hyatt turned out to be as star cheap fitflop studded as the Chanel front row; the flipflop australia latter had Marianne Faithfull, Diane Kruger and Princess Caroline of Monaco, but afterwards, while I waited to meet a friend at the hotel, I couldn't help noticing Monica Bellucci sipping champagne cheap fitflop at the bar and Giles Deacon by the fireplace, ensconced with impossibly glamorous members of the French fashion press. (No sign of any Russian oligarchs, however; nor of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis, sadly, even though they lived at the Park Hyatt for three months with their children.)
Anyway, this quick shot of Parisian sophistication reminded me, forcibly, that furry boots do not have to equate with sloppy, soggy Uggs or droopy English hippies. The Frenchwomen were all sauntering about in warm boots because the weather was cold and the streets awash with puddles, but their footwear was more reminiscent of 1920s Slavic elegance than 1990s slipshod bohemianism. These were boots to be worn with astrakhan trimmed tailored coats, immaculate black leather gloves and strings of pearls; boots for the rue de Rivoli, rather than the Euston Road.
Back home in London, I've been inspired to buy a pair of the furry sheepskin boots known as Billows, from the same clever people who invented FitFlops, which I wore non stop last summer. The theory is that these boots will keep you toned, as well as warm the shape of the sole encourages the muscles to work harder than an entirely flat shoe and I have a fantasy that by the time I return to Paris in the springtime I will be as svelte as Vanessa Paradise, and installed in a penthouse suite at the Park Hyatt, preferably with a Russian grand duke for company, and a complete set of Chanel couture.