Every 15 years or so, it seems, we rediscover the desert boot. We fall for its classic style, embrace it, adapt, it, call it our own – until the next generation rediscovers it for themselves. The structure couldn’t be simpler – a lace-up suede ankle boot with a crepe rubber sole. The appeal is in the comfort and the stylish informality. A desert boot looks great with jeans, but also with chinos, and academic types have long since adopted it as part of their campus uniform, worn with corduroys or even a tweed suit.
Today’s desert boots are edgier. The sole is thinner – more fashionable if a tad less practical. And in some cases suede has given way to soft leather, tumbled or sanded down to give a matt finish. Though they stand up to spring or fall weather, they are also lightweight enough for summer. Even the colour has changed from the original natural or brown suede but, blue or white or whatever hue you will, they remain, unmistakably, desert boots.
The tale of a boot
The desert boot has a military past. During World War II, British officers in the Eighth Army, stationed in Egypt, patronized cobblers in the Cairo bazaar who made them simple ankle boots out of undyed suede with rubber crepe soles. Inspired by the Voortrekker boots favoured by South African soldiers, these were not standard issue but the officers prized them for their comfort and breathability. In the late 1940s, English shoemaker Nathan Clark was engaged in military service in Burma and saw officers wearing the “desert boots.” When he returned to England he began to manufacture them in the family’s workshops. Ironically, it was the Mods and anti-establishment beatnik groups of the 1960s who made desert boots popular, though they soon entered fashion’s mainstream. They are with us still.
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