kenderina

Well..at least you don't need to buy wellies in Venice if acqua alta catch you there

There are wellies also in Spain. In the north..as much as in the UK, every kid has a pair. Here were I live..well, maybe after this rainy spring I will think on buying ones , but we usually don't need them

cigalechanta

My Le chameau are leather lined and with wool sox I'm warm when I shovel snow. They are high and I'm short

Dukey

Actually, Nytraveller I wear a form of "regular wellies" when i shovel my driveway in the winter and with socks my feet stay quite warm...but perhaps my own experience is the exception rather than the rule.

I suppose my post was trying to explore the possibility of the "wellie" as some sort of symbol or icon.

anchoress

Dukey; you mean like "Compo" In "last of the Summer Wine"?

sandi_travelnut

As i mentioned in my post, we DO have Wellies in the US. They are sold at Smith & Hawken.

noe847

In 2005, colorful wellies were all the rage in the US. They were sold at lots of retail shops as well as being featured in nearly every clothing catalog that came in the mail (JCrew, Lands End, Target. I saw quite a selection at the discount shoe outlet DSW). All kinds of colors, with our without patterns such as dots, plaid, or stripes. We saw some of these when we visited Scotland, alongside the more traditional ones.

basingstoke2

Does that mean I can get some white wellies to replace my white tennis shoes. Those will go great with the black cape I wear in Transylvania so locals won't take me for a tourist.

nona1

To spot 'posh' wellies in the UK look for the green ones with a little buckle at the top. Hunter wellies.

But otherwise bog-standard wellies are not a status symbol, I picked mine up for £5.

The exception for this is at festivals - you'll see lots of multi-coloured and patterned wellies - worn for the 'ooh look at me I'm at a festival' effect instead of standard black ones.

nona1

You'll also notice that a lot of 'real' wellie wearers turn the tops down an inch or so as it stops them rubbing your legs. Even though it makes you look like Compo from last of the summer wine.

Dukey

Nona1...that is EXACTLY what the woman in Broadway was wearing!

nona1

She could well have been a Londoner with a weekend cottage!

nutjobz

American children wore boots over their shoes when I was a child. Many of us were scared for life by this experience. The boots were ugly and often horrid colors. I remember a brown pair, for example. And they never fit our shoes, either they were too big and fell off in the snow, or too small and wouldn't pull on over our shoes. And at school our teachers would have to help us pull them on. It was always painful & humiliating.
The cute wellies & LL Bean-type boots now available are a revelation.

Dukey

Nutjobz,

I have no idea how old you are but when I was growing up boots were usually one color: black (maybe we were more underpriviledged than even we knew)...but i have to say that your particular story is one of the more interesting ones I have ever heard here.

julia_t

http://www.wellie-boots.com/wellies.htm

anchoress

nutjobz; those overshoes are what are known in England as "galoshes".

Did you know that in some areas, eg Cornwall, they make special wellies for cows...

PatrickLondon

But if it wasn't for your wellies, where would you be?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g455lLAlTX8

noe847

Here's a picture of wellies with the tops turned down (on movie stars Kiera Knightly and Sienna Miller):
http://popsugar.com/gallery/66571?page=0,0,3

jodeenyc

I see people wearing wellies on the streets of NY all the time. Especially useful at intersections or subways where it tends to flood after a hard rain.

Dukey

Yes, but do they wear their baseball caps at the same time????