Fashion Flashbacks: designer boots

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The Most Expensive Boots In The World

I was about to take a trek through the history of boots when I stumbled upon an article in Forbes Magazine that stopped me in my tracks. The article is entitled “The Most Expensive Cowboy Boots” (see link below).The paragraph that really jumped out at me was this one: “Tres Outlaws in El Paso, Texas, once clocked a customer for $75,000 for a pair whose mind-boggling design traced the history of Mexico, including $18,000 worth of gold and silver coins from various historical eras. The design alone took 100 hours, the hand-carving another 300 hours and the color and dye work an additional 200 hours. As pricey as those boots were, Tres Outlaws has another pair on order that will run even higher.” Even higher? I don’t know about you, readers, but I doubt I’d cash in my life savings to be that well shod, though there’s obviously a market for thoroughbred boots.

The Forbes article put me on a whole new track, which led to a story about football fans doling out tens of thousands of pounds for three pairs of match-worn boots belonging to soccer stars Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney and John Terry. According to footy-boots.com, Ferdinand planned to auction them to raise funds for his charity the Live Dream Foundation. For the occasion, John Terry’s Umbro Speciali’s were embellished with 2,374 jewels, including 27 carat of white diamonds, 11 carat of sapphires and 84 black diamonds. Not to be outshone, Wayne Rooney’s Nike Total 90 Laser II’s sported 2,576 gems with more than 10 carat of white diamonds and 31 carat of black diamonds. Ferdinand’s boots were in the same league – 2,494 stones, gold-tipped laces and spray paint graffiti by no less than film producer and former musician, Goldie. As it turned out, the boots didn’t fetch the estimated price. Rooney’s sold for Â£18,000, Terry’s for Â£20,000 and Ferdinand’s for Â£22,000.

Wayne Rooney’s Nike Total 90 Laser II’s

Manolo Blahnik Alligator Boot

The sky seems to be the limit when it comes to men's boots. What about women’s boots then? The priciest pair I found are by Manolo Blahnik (who else?) and made of alligator skin, finest alligator skin, I should point out. This fashion discovery shattered any remaining hope of historical research for this post as off I went in search of other designer boots to see how much they cost. I confess I got sidetracked when I came upon a pair of Gucci woven leather boots on Net A Porte - and a sensational ocelot bootie by Alexander McQueen. As you can see from the pictures below, I took a detour from price and eventually ended up focusing on style.