They were the boots to be seen in, but that was two years ago. So why are they still topping the bestseller list, asks Claudia Croft
For all its mystique and glamour, fashion can be ploddingly predictable. Its trend cycle has a brutal and unrelenting regularity. If animal-print, ankle boots or leggings are hot one season, you can bet your Louboutins that it will be sartorial suicide to be seen in them the next. The logic behind this remorseless routine is clear: if fashion didn't render the majority of its output obsolete at the end of every season, nobody would buy anything new, the industry would topple and we would all end up wearing utilitarian boiler suits.
But every so often, a fad comes along that breaks the system, because it refuses to die. Uggs are one such renegade. Currently, they are the second-bestselling shoe brand in Selfridges, beating Gucci, Prada and Marc Jacobs and being pipped only by the top seller and red-hot heel king, Christian Louboutin. "We are selling 30% more than we did last year," confirms Sebastian Manes, head of accessories at Selfridges. The tall black version, a little higher than the classic Ugg, is selling out fastest, he says. Over at Harvey Nichols, staff are also reporting a rush. Uggs itself is reporting that this year's sales are more than double last year's. Meanwhile, Kate Moss is photographed padding about the Cotswolds in a battered old pair, Anna Friel waxes lyrical in interviews about hers and Sienna can't seem to break her habit. Not bad for a boot that should have gone the way of the dodo.
This continuing Ugg mania goes against all fashion logic, which demands not only that hot trends be cruelly culled, but that they stay dead. It was only two years ago that the comfy Aussie boots reached critical mass -worn by A-listers, Wags, yummy mummies and trendy teens alike -so the current revival seems to have happened with indecent haste.
"When you buy them, you become addicted, because they are so comfortable and practical," says Manes. "What is the alternative?" asks Joanna Jeffreys of Harvey Nichols, who believes that women are simply not ready to give up their favourite boots on a fashion whim without something equally practical and comfortable to replace them. "Nothing else has come along to fill the gap between a welly and a trainer, and they are so comfy," she says.
But if you think that gives you carte blanche to pull on your Uggs for a fancy dinner date, or to wear them with a sexy dress, as many did first time around, you'd be wrong. The trend now comes with caveats. To avoid looking two years out of date, play to the Uggs comfy credentials, not its high-fashion ones. "It's more a lifestyle thing than a trend thing now," cautions Manes. Jeffreys agrees. "They are perfect for popping out for a newspaper, or for walking the dog in the rain," she says. "But they are unforgivable with a dress and tights -that's when you should be doing a biker boot."
Uggs were, of course, around for years before they became a white-hot fashion trend. Now, it seems, they are reverting to their original purpose of being the best comfy boots you can buy -not the trendiest. This time around, Uggs are seen as a covetable basic, as integral to a woman's wardrobe as a great pair of jeans or the perfect white T-shirt
