A Letter From Vivian: The Lauren
A letter from the founder
You can put a year on every other pair of boots at the bottom of your closet.
On the six things I looked for before these came into the store, why a riding boot is the only shape in the shop that has never been in fashion, and why they are $79.95 for our twentieth year.
Go and look at the boots at the bottom of your closet, and tell me you cannot put a year on each pair.
The pointed ones. The slouchy ones that were everywhere for two winters and then were not. The pair with the buckle at the ankle that you loved, and that now looks exactly like what it is — a very good idea from about 2016.
You did not buy any of them badly. You bought them when they were the thing. The thing moved.
And that, more than the money, is why women have quietly stopped spending properly on boots. Not because they cannot. Because they have learned that whatever they choose will be datable inside three years, the way the last four pairs were, and nobody enjoys being able to date her own shoes.
A riding boot does not have this problem, and the reason is that it was never designed to be looked at. It was designed to go through a stirrup and up a leg and stay there. Straight shaft. Clean round toe. A low stacked heel because a horse required one. Leather, because nothing else survived the job. Nothing on it is decorative, because nothing on it was allowed to be.
Which means it cannot go out of fashion. It was never in.
There were six things I would not do without.
The heel is not there to make you taller
It is a low stacked block, and the lift is honest but modest — enough that you feel dressed, not so much that you are managing it. The whole width of your foot sits over the ground, so there is no balancing on brick, on grass, on a sidewalk that has seen better winters. But the part nobody mentions is what a heel like this actually does, which is not height. It tips your weight forward, off the back of your foot, and that changes how you stand rather than how tall you are. It is the difference between feeling dressed and feeling careful. And you can have it all afternoon, which is the only test that has ever mattered.
"The block heel gives me a little height without feeling wobbly. Very happy with the style."
Della M., Spokane"Nice to find a sturdy heel with a bit of lift. I wore mine for an afternoon downtown and was comfortable browsing the shops and stopping for lunch."
Frances J., BoiseNothing on them is decorative
No buckle. No strap. No hardware, no studs, no contrast panel doing something clever at the ankle. The only thing you could call an ornament is the stitching, and the stitching is structural — it runs where the panels meet, down the shaft and around the collar, in a thread a shade darker than the leather. That is the whole trick of an object that lasts: when the decoration is the construction, there is nothing on it that can go out of style, because there is nothing on it that was put there to be in style. Everything you can see is doing a job, and all of it is leather.
"The stitching is a pretty detail. Nothing flashy, just a handsome pair of boots."
Vera S., Grand Rapids"I wore riding-style boots for years and somehow got away from them. These reminded me why I liked the look. Put them on with jeans yesterday and felt like myself again. My taste hasn't changed as much as my closet has."
Nora B., LancasterThe shaft is cut straight, and that decides everything
Not tapered, not slouched, and not left to collapse into folds at the ankle after a month. Slouch was a fashion, and a slouched boot never stands up again once it has gone down. A straight shaft sits under a jean without bunching, and holds its own line above a bare leg, and — this is the part that matters in five years — still has a shape in it when you take it off and stand it by the door. Leather is what does that, and very little else does — it creases where your ankle bends and nowhere else, instead of going soft all round and folding into a ring at the top of the foot by its second winter. It comes to just below the knee, which is the height that works whether the leg above it is covered or not.
"These are the sort of boots I always look for when fall comes around. A clean, classic shape that looks lovely with jeans and a sweater."
Catherine R., LexingtonThey buy you six more weeks out of everything you already own
There is a week in October when a woman puts away half her wardrobe, and if she is honest it is not because the weather turned. It is because she has nothing to put on her feet with a dress any more. The sandals are done and the flats look like an apology, so the dresses go to the back of the closet with another two months of wear left in them. A tall boot is what stops that happening. It goes under a dress, under a skirt, over tights, and it keeps a whole half of a wardrobe in play until Christmas. It also means not doing the thing where you dress properly for an evening and then change your shoes at nine o'clock.
"I bought the Lauren boots to wear with dresses I wasn't quite ready to put away for the season. Tried them with a long cardigan and a simple dress for dinner with friends. Felt nicely dressed without having to put on heels I'd want to take off halfway through the evening."
Ann H., Richmond"I had a birthday lunch coming up and wanted boots that would work afterward for ordinary days, too. These looked good with my skirt, and I've since worn them with jeans. I appreciate getting more than one kind of outfit out of a purchase."
Diana K., KnoxvilleFive colors, and the one to think about is not the black
A woman buying one pair of boots buys black, because black is the safe answer, and I have sold enough of them to say plainly that it is usually the wrong one. Black is only truly right against black. A brown boot is the one that goes with navy, with denim, with cream, with olive, with grey — which is to say with most of what is already hanging up. The camel and the cognac are the two that women stand over the longest and then wear three times as often as they expected, and the dark brown is the one that behaves like a black boot without the flatness. They are all the same price, so there is nothing to be sensible about here either.
Sizes 5 through 14, one price, and leather that improves
Ten sizes, five colors, fifty pairs of boots on the rack, and not a cent between them. Fourteen is the part I am proud of: a woman with a size 12 foot has spent her life being offered whatever was left, and it is usually black and usually the dull one. Take your ordinary size — these are true to it — and if you mean to wear them over a thick sock through the winter, that is the one reason to go up.
And they are leather, which matters here more than anywhere else on this page. Leather is the only upper worth more after three winters than it was in the box. It takes the shape of your own foot. It darkens at the collar where your hand goes to pull them on, and along the outside of the ankle where you knock against things, and after a while a pair of boots has a record on it of where you have actually been. Everything else only wears out. So treat them like boots — wipe them down, keep them dry, stand them up rather than folding them over — and they will be the pair you are still reaching for when the next four fashions have come and gone.
A shape with no year on it, in the one material that gets better. That is the whole of why I bought these and not something cleverer.
These, against the pairs at the bottom of the closet
| The boots you have been buying | The Lauren | |
|---|---|---|
| What year they are | You could name it | There is not one |
| Decoration | Buckles, straps, hardware | Stitching, because the panels meet |
| The heel | Asks to be noticed, and managed | A low stacked block you forget about |
| The shaft | Tapered, or slouched by November | Leather, cut straight, and it stays straight |
| With a dress | You change your shoes at nine | You do not change your shoes |
| Sizing | Stops at 10, if you are lucky | 5 through 14, every color one price |
I would rather sell a woman one pair she is still wearing in 2032 than three pairs she can date on sight. That is the entire reason these are on the rack.
Why we’re clearing them now
The Lauren sits at $399.95, and for a tall boot built this way that is a fair number. But the store turns twenty this year, and Pearl is at the counter beside me now, in the spot where she used to sit and do her homework after school. I wanted to mark it with something better than a sign in the window. So they go out at $79.95 — a fifth of what they were, every color, every size the same.
I would rather these went out on women's feet this fall than sat in the back through another winter. That is the whole of the arithmetic.
★★★★★4.8 out of 5 — from 3,524+ reviews
$399.95$79.95
20th Anniversary Sale — Save 80%
- A classic riding shape — no buckles, no straps, no hardware
- Leather, which darkens and takes your shape instead of wearing out
- Stitching that follows the seams, a shade darker than the leather
- A low stacked block heel — real lift, steady all afternoon
- A shaft cut straight, to just below the knee
- Sits under jeans, and holds its line over a bare leg
- A clean round toe, with room across the front
- Five colors — Dark Brown, Light Brown, Camel, Cognac and Black
- True to size · 5 through 14 · every color, one price
- Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee
Every color the same price · while sizes last
One last thing, and then I will let you go and look.
More than half the women who carry a pair of these to my counter say a version of the same sentence, and they say it almost apologetically.
I used to wear boots like this.
Used to. As though the boot went out, or she did.
Neither happened. For about fifteen years the shops simply stopped offering this shape, and by the time it came back round she had quietly filed it under things she used to do — along with a number of other things that were never actually finished.
It is not something you used to do. It is something you like, and it has been true the whole time.
Go and put a pair on.
— Vivian · Vivian & Pearl Newport
SEE THE LAUREN — $79.95 →This is a personal letter from the founder of Vivian & Pearl Newport. Customer reviews are quoted as written. · US family brand since 2006 · Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee.