Buttoned Balmoral Boots

Hugo JACOMET

26/10/2014

Recently, I was sitting in a Parisian café when I noticed a gentleman who was exceptionally well dressed. He was wearing a three piece suit: a dapper single breasted jacket with peak lapels, a double breasted waistcoat with slanted pockets, a pocket watch that had been gently tucked into his vest pocket, and…a luxurious pair of buttoned Balmoral boots.

The buttoned Balmoral continues to make a full come back, if not in our closets—as they have been quite expensive in the recent past and difficult to find outside of the bespoke arena, then at least in our sartorial fantasies.

While the man I observed appeared to be straight out of a 1934 Apparel Arts catalogue designed by Lawrence Fellows, mindlessly leafing through the international news (on a contemporary iPad) and speaking on his cell in English (most likely with an overseas acquaintance)—it was a scene likely to make H.G. Wells, who had always envisioned a clash of the times while cruising around in his time machine, wince in a state of confusion.

Still, at the heart of this highly anachronistic image : the buttoned Balmoral boot.

Only in recent years has the buttoned Balmoral been available in made-to-order and even ready-to-wear versions, with the boot continuing to trend heavily in Japan and France (with the restless Marc Guyot in Paris , continuing to make surprisingly affordable models).

Here is a non exhaustive update of a few boot versions currently available in the wildly elegant Balmoral style.

To wear buttoned Balmoral boots well requires paying careful attention to color, pattern, and texture coordination of your entire suiting ensemble, in order to avoid appearing as a try-hard in fancy boots.