Give Festival Season Some Welly
Don't kid yourself about legendary line-ups and campsite camaraderie - the best thing about festival season is that it affords urban sophisticates the opportunity to legitimately run around in Wellington boots. Harking back to those endless days when we were all popping cola bottles and flying saucers (or, last Wednesday, as we call it at Skinny Towers), wellies as everyday attire is a little slice of nostalgia that's worth taking full advantage of. The high street is already littered with patterned boots as loud as the main stage, whilst block colours always leave open the option of making like Dame Shirley Bassey at Glastonbury, and emblazoning your initials on the side in Swarovskis. Or for real school holiday authenticity, go with "L" and "R" in marker pen - just so you don't forget...
The Classic - Hunter Boots, £55 www.hunter-boot.com
For you if: You're channeling Keira & Sienna in The Edge of Love, Doherty-era, festival-going Kate Moss (without the nasty, tabloid indiscretions), or Brit Awards, Lord-of-the-Manor era Arctic Monkeys (without the opportunist Popworld girlfriend).
The classic, unisex Hunter welly has bedecked the calves of the horsey set for aeons, but having gleaned some free advertising space just below the knee of Madonna, its status as a fashion stalwart was forever cemented. The Heinz 57 to every other own-brand wellington - and a Scottish company, owned and run - the Hunter is the smart choice, for ladies and gents who know an investment piece when they see one.
The Real Deal Designer Piece - Cath Kidston, £38 www.cathkidston.co.uk
For you if: You're the kind of kid who doesn't see why a few acres worth of six-feet-deep, stick-tight mud should outlaw the option of high-end footwear.
Making everything pretty since 1992, Cath Kidston was the first brand to figure out that the world and your lower legs are just better places when wrapped in old-fashioned wallpaper print. Much replicated but seldom bettered, these little beauties' designer standing is guaranteed to impress the editors of Heat magazine, should you get papped in a compromising situation in the hospitality tent with a B-list pop star. Or failing that, you'll just look pretty.
The Rebel Yell - Office, £25 www.office.co.uk
For you if: You had frog-faced or ladybird wellies when you were eight, and still appreciate the value of experimental footwear.
Though the Klaxons all but pillaged any remaining life out of neon during last summers' media assault, these boots remain a viable option. This particular pair is just for the girls, but Hunter do a similarly fantastic shade for brave boys. Actually pretty chic when paired with neutrals and an army jacket, if nothing else, they'll light your way back to your teepee after Whoever and the Whoevers have played their final encore and you're feeling a little delicate.