The Jodhpur Boot
History of fashion
Our wardrobe would be incomplete if I had not decorated it with my “seven league” BOOTS, the ones that magically adapt to the feet that wear them. Ours will take on the codes of the “Jodhpur”, this model that I love so much, so elegant and of which we never tire!
I will tell you the origin of this essential. You have to travel far to find traces of our boots at their source, as far as Rajasthan in the northwest of India. There, there is a magical city called Jodhpur, nicknamed the Blue City. This is not a romantic twist for a tourist brochure, the houses in the historic center of the city were really painted blue, a light ultramarine blue which formerly indicated the houses belonging to the Brahmins. The latter are from the upper caste of scholars responsible for the priesthood and “good cosmic order”, which means that there is a question of secular harmony on the Jodhpur side! The British armies failed there, as did most armies in search of stubborn domination. In fact, ironically, the very posh riders of the Household Cavalry of Her Majesty Queen Victoria discovered that there existed in Rajasthan and other regions of India, riders, fighters and polo players, just as emeritus than them. They also discovered to their cost that their flashy harness was completely unsuitable for the humid and torrid heat unknown in Westminster. Putting on their tight, high boots was like pushing a claustrophobic into a sauna and taking them off was an extra ordeal,
While their local riding peers moved with agility and presence in chic and functional outfits; it's absolutely compatible.
This outfit was notably composed of breeches tight to the calves and loose around the thighs which passed into common parlance under the name "jodhpurs", in the plural. Moreover, as we have known since Darwin that the function creates the organ, our Indian horsemen, when they were not fighting on horseback or playing polo, duly booted, discovered that lighter boots would have all the virtues: stopping at the ankle, designed so that the rounded toe does not get caught in the saddle, the heel of sufficient height to fit in the stirrup and finally that the flap is held by a small strap which goes around the ankle and closed with a side buckle. These are the historical and basic characteristics of the Jodhpur squire boot which entered history through a royal door.
Indeed, the son of the Maharajah of Jodhpur, Sir Pratap Singh, attended Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1897, escorted by his team of polo players, magnificently dressed, wearing breeches and wearing Jodhpur boots. The prince also offered a pair of boots to the queen. It didn't take much more for the court to fall into swoon and a fashion to be launched. Our English friends, experts in pragmatism, recovered this original riding boot to launch it to conquer the city. To walk better on the carpet in the living rooms, or to put them on more easily, as the case may be, two adaptations of the Jodhpur appeared, consisting of replacing the strap with laces or with elastic bellows. The lace-up variant was called Chukkas boots (a term from the rules of polo that I am unable to explain). The elastic gusset variant was named Chelsea boots, referring to the artists' district of Swinging London in the sixties – the Beatles wore Chelsea boots, which is much more familiar to me.
The fact remains that the true Jodhpur boot is the original ankle boot with strap and side buckle. It is therefore this timeless model that I designed for you, putting all my heart into it .
The person who will make our boots is Pedro, from the family business Vitorino in Portugal. He manufactures shoes for the biggest brands, without ever denying the know-how and artisanal values of the founding shoemaker. You will see, Pedro is worthy of entering the circle of our loyal partners, determined to do something beautiful, do good, do it well.
Now is the time to present the boots that I designed for you, see you Thursday September 9 to reserve them.
Strongly!
Charlotte