Square toed chelsea boots, made with a luxe leather upper & leather lined - designed to give you a feeling of empowerment and control.
If you have been following our brand for awhile, you will know that Selkie made her first debut as part of our AW19 collection. The chiseled square toe was something we had been wanting to achieve for sometime and it was not until we began work with our new maker Mipiaci that we were able to execute the sharpness of finish we wanted for this silhouette.
Sometimes we like to think about our collection kind of like a mix tape - so there are all different songs and genres of music that when you put them together on a tape can create a universal mood. It's the same with the flat shoes we make. We have trainers for active/playful moods, and of course sharp flat shoes for 'I'm getting this done' moods. Keeping the mix tape mood analogy going - if Selkie was a song she would be right at the beginning and it would be The Velvet Underground's 'Venus In Fur' with Lou Reed singing 'Shiny Shiny Shiny Boots in Leather...'. That energy and duality of sharpness and looseness. That's Selkie.
So thinking about that sharpness of fit and the silhouette we wanted to create - you will know with Selkie that we had her last year and then she disappeared for a while. And that was because after our first season we identified a lot of things we wanted to fix and improve. Things you can not know until you have made a full production. So for this year there are a couple of functional changes we have made. The first is to the shaft - last years version in bulk production ended up being a bit too wide and on some customers the heel was slipping. We also found the height of the boot was tricky for people with a high instep to fit, so we have reduced it, just by 2.5cms - enough to make it functional, without loosing the 'Nico' inspired silhouette. We have also very gently changed the curve of the heel to ensure there is absolutely no slipping on this new incarnation. And we test fitted in all sizes to be sure.
The other great 'innovation' that we offer up with Selkie 2.0 is the inclusion of a complimentary set of replacement heel caps. We noticed last year, not as a fault - but just in the way people wear boots like this, that the heel strike is very heavy in this type of silhouette and so over time, the heel caps wear down. We spoke with our shoe repair Guru Anna from On The Mend about it and the solution we came up with was to include a set of heel caps with every air as a reminder that you need to have heel caps replaced to prolong the life of your boot. We say checking at about the 3 month mark to see how the heels are wearing and then again at about the 6 month mark. If the heels are showing signs of wear, you can take these heel caps to your shoe repairer to have them replaced. Love your shoes and they will love you back.
