Andalusian Boots in the Snow

This past Friday we had our first snowstorm of the season and, as a result, here we are, 49 km north of central Toronto, with a lot of snow on the ground! Today my new Andalusian boots got their first feel of Canadian winter. I hope that it wasn’t too much of a shock. Poor babies – from Andalusia to Canada it’s quite a change.

The boots are my Cartujano (Carthusian) boots from Herce, a company from the Valverde del Camino brand collective in Huelva, Andalusia. I’ve been looking at this boot for a long time on Herce‘s website and finally ordered it from the company’s online shop. It’s a slightly modified version of the Valverde signature product – the campero boot. The boots have a band of ornate etched leather at the top and I just couldn’t help myself.

Boots: Herce Tights: HYD

These boots are made from strong, thick, but not inflexible leather with a beautiful matte finish. They are definitely more like a real riding boot than all the riding boots that I see people wearing. They are the least stylized – the real deal, in short. Their name comes from the Cartujano horse breed.

Andalusia is famous for its horses and the Cartujano breed is one of the finest.

I did not get the boots for riding, though. I got them for walking around. I ordered the lower heel option, because I wanted them to be my all-terrain boots. Being an outdoorsy person, who loves roaming around in the country side, but also one who regularly commutes to downtown Toronto, these boots suit my lifestyle perfectly.

The other day Dharia Lézin of dhariascloset.blogspot.com, who did such an awesome blog post on us, included a number of great quotes on shoes from none other than Christian Louboutin. One quote that came to mind as I was walking in my new boots was that shoes determine the way we walk. These Cartujano boots definitely do. They make me walk differently – not so hurried, just by virtue of the leather (box-calfskin) being more dense than that of any other boots I’ve ever had. As a consequence, they also make me feel differently.

I love the rugged beauty of these boots. The reddish-brown or Arabia color of the leather (named, I presume, after the beautiful coats of the Arabian horses) goes very well with my winter purse, which is, incidentally, by another Andalusian leather and footwear company – the Cordoba-based Petusco.

The insole is slightly elevated in the instep, which makes it more comfortable for walking. Of course, since these are not custom-made, one insole fits slightly differently than the other. This is easily fixed by going to a shoe-repair shop and getting another insole fitted inside. The boot shaft is 40 cm high, which is not too high and not too low.

I ordered the boots online and they got here in very little time. The price point at slightly over 100 Euros. Even with the customs duty that I had to pay, it was very, very reasonable for such unique, quality boots.

The tights I’m wearing are Red Garden in black by HYD (see Fashion Tights post).

If you want to order these boots from www.botosvalverde.es, but don’t have a VAT (or GST) number, just input 1111111, since it is a required field.

(www.botosvalverde.es)