My mom and I had a whole argument about shaft height back in October, the kind where nobody’s really listening to the other person, we’re both just waiting for our turn to talk again. She thinks anything past the ankle bone is a rain boot pretending. I think a low cut bootie is just a shoe having an identity crisis. Then it snowed six inches in Portland, which never happens, the whole city just stops, and suddenly the argument didn’t matter because the only boot leaving my apartment that week was the one that actually covered something. Weather settled it. Nobody won, we just both got quiet.
That’s sort of the whole thing with ankle boots though, the good ones solve a problem you didn’t know you’d have yet, and the bad ones just look like a solved problem in a photo. I’ve bought both. The pair that fooled me hardest cost $89, looked structured and serious online, and turned out to have a shaft so stiff it sat away from my leg like a little fence post, visible gap, cold air just strolling right in. Did the math on that one, wore it four times before I gave up, that’s over twenty bucks a wear for something that made my ankle look like it was under house arrest.
The pair that actually earned its spot came from the Tuesday restock at my thrift place, twelve dollars, already broken in by somebody else’s feet which honestly should be a selling point they advertise more.
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Shaft hits right below the ankle bone, low enough that skinny jeans don’t bunch up into that weird sausage situation at the hem, high enough that it doesn’t look like I forgot to finish getting dressed. I’ve worn it with a slip dress in September and with the same jeans four days running in January, and it hasn’t once looked like it was trying too hard in either direction. Twelve dollars, worn probably sixty times by now, I’m not doing that math out loud because it’s going to make me insufferable.
I will say the pointed toe pair in my closet is a gamble and I know it. Great with a dress, genuinely elegant, but with straight leg jeans it does something narrow and slightly witchy that not everyone’s going to want near their ankle. I bought it anyway because the leather was too nice to leave on the rack, and I stand by that even though it only leaves the house about once a month.
Buy for the shaft height that matches how you actually dress, not the one that photographs best standing still. The weather will eventually make the decision for you anyway, it usually does.
