The Valenki
Manolo says, recently the Manolo he has been hearing much talk about the Russian Valenki boot as being the next Ugg, the next ugly boot to be the big trend.
Here, allow the Manolo to nip this in the bud.
If you are the shuffling, toothless, 100 kilogram Russian babushka with the head scarf then by all the means, wear the valenki. If you are not the Russian granny then, in the opinion of the Manolo, you have no business wearing the Valenki.
Trust the Manolo, nothing says, Comrade, I have in my soviet-era apartment stockpiled 500 rolls of the low-quality toilet paper like the valenki.
Do not be the babushka, do not wear the valenkis.
Since the Valenok is made of felt, it seems to the Annalucia that it would make the perfect liner to a bigger, heavier boot. As a stand-alone, however, she does not like it. Never mind, for the moment, its attractiveness – is it waterproof, is it sturdy, does it keep the foot adequately warm in the brutal winter conditions? Her guess is that the answers are No, No and No.
I learned something. What an interesting boot. I would like to try a pair. I know it may not be your style Manolo, but perhaps for me it is worth a try. Anyway, thank you for the controversy.
УЧИ АЛБАНСКИЙ
Oh, Manolo, in russian winter valenki – is the best shoes. I guess people in Alaska and Canada will like them too ;)
And valenki can be very glamourous, i’ll try to find some pictures for you.
Cheers
Maha
I don’t believe you have ever used valenki or seen them in reality.
I like them very much!
When I catch 100 kilogram Russian babushka on the Moscow streets…
First thing I do before eating babushka I take her nice warm valenki.
Look at this pair
Oops!
http://pics.bg.afisha.ru/userimg/2005-03-16/valenki.jpg
2 Maha:
wrong example :) these one have kaloshi attached.
2Mahavishnu:
Valenki with kaloshi are much better %))) They are waterproof %)
That last pair that Maha posted is actually kind of cute. And after looking out at the three feet of snow outside my office, they look even better.
2Maha:
I know. Kinda cute looking :))
I realize that nothing screams ‘wacked out crazy SCA affiliate’ like my website, but I wanted to share a pair of these felt boots that I had made… http://www.vertetsable.com/pix/bootsfinished.jpg
They don’t have to be ugly, these wonderful felt boots. And nothing is warmer, even when wet!
They look like the liners for the wonderfully warm and snuggly (but unfashionable) Sorel Caribou boot. If I saw someone wearing them, I would be greatly confused as to why they are wearing boot liners without the boot… especially in Los Angeles. ;-)
So, are you saying that I shouldn’t wear these with a miniskirt the next time I’m shopping at the mall in Costa Mesa?
I can smell the boiled cabbage from here. UGG on those atrocities. Fill them up with pierogies and ship them to the icy tundra where they belong.
And I like pierogies.
jj – I can TOTALLY see the “trendy” LA people wearing those unfashionably hip Sorels 6 months from now with their dark-washed, higher-waisted, tapered jeans tucked into them. With flimsy, droopy tank tops, naturally.
They should call this one the “ugh”
Are those made of cement?
Felt top-to-toe with Joseph Beuys
Have you ever been in Siberia, idiot?
Which boots you can use when the temperature is about -50?
When I saw a picture of them, I thought they were ancient boots that had fossilized over the millennia. Or possibly a pair of boots made for those stone soldiers they uncovered in those ancient tombs in China a while ago. I’m serious; I thought they were made of rocks.
I thought it couldn’t get any worse (than Uggs in this case), but it always does.
These are gonna be totally fashionable, aren’t they?
The desertwind confesses she’s got a soft spot for felt, wool and fleece. She loves her German felt clogs and jackets and is really sorta attracted to the “Valenki with kaloshi” posted by Maha.
Felt is very warm and waterproof!
But, you gotta use discretion and something tells me Valenki worn with light summer mini-dress on the streets of Los Angeles will look a bit trying.
La BellaDonna, she loves the Manolo and his wise and wonderful advice … but she also confesses to an affection for the valenki and its kaloshi (etymology galosh?); she has a fondness for items which are true to their roots, and for the historical footwear. She believes that the valenki serves its purpose in a way which is truly beautiful.
La BellaDonna also has a fondness for the appropriate, however, and the appropriate for this boot, it is the three feet of the snow. She would find it wonderfully silly if this boot were to be worn with the tapered momjean in the downtown of the L.A., unless accompanied by the three feet of the snow. It would also be of the silly if it were to be worn with the flimsy minidress.
Since the weather it has been of the wet, varied with the rainy, La BellaDonna looks forward to seeing the hipwaders of the LL Bean worn in the downtown of the L.A., also with the flimsy minidress. It would be of the equally chic.
La BellaDonna also says hola to the Agent Orange, who has the very attractive site, and when will the aiglettes be back in stock?
Hola BellaDonna!
A small blogosphere indeed! The aiglets, alas, are backordered and there is a rumor that they are discontinued.
“Have you ever been in Siberia, idiot?”
The point that the Manolo is making is not that these boots are not appropriate for wearing in Siberia, but that they are not appropriate, as the very insightful Neefer implies, for wearing “with a miniskirt the next time I’m shopping at the mall in Costa Mesa.” This is hows the Uggs are currently being worn, and this is how the Uggliers, or Valenkis, or whatever their name is, will most likely be worn before long. Were they to remain in Siberia, we would all be mightily pleased.
The Valenkis look much too much like the liner from the ‘snowmobile’ boots I wore as a wee girl growing up in Iowa. To go play in snow, you put on sock and snowpants and wooly warm undershirting, first, of course. Then you sit down (kind of, as snowpant not very bendy), pull the liner out of your big rubber boots and zip them over your wool sock feet if you can reach. If not, mom comes and serves as shoe salesman by kneeling in front of you and forcing foot into liner and zipping you up. Then, you stand up and shove liner-covered foot down into big rubber boot, have mom zip and lace up boot, and then you were ready to put on your coat and hat and scarf and mittens and go out to embrace the cold.
Do you remember what it felt like to be playing outside in snow as a child and feel the leaking bodily fluid from your eyes or nose or mouth freeze to your face? Not pleasant. Same as these bad midwestern snowmobiling boot liners.
As a general rule, I don’t wear boots that look like they were carved from a solid block of granite.
No doubt they are comfortable and warm, but if I saw them in Los Angeles, I would be duty-bound to point and laugh.
Yikes! Are truly these Valenkis the shoes? To my big brown eye they look more like the mitt for the oven that you use when baking the Betty Crocker brownies, only made for feet, for those who have lost the hands and need to do the baking with the feet.
Haha! :D Well I sure don’t want to be the Babushka! Thank you, Manolo, from attempting to save the world from the Valenki.
That’s the sexiest Valenki I’ve seen in my life
http://valenkisrus.com/Pages/Wear.html
and I had to wear them to school on the cold day. the fact is that this boot blows all the Columbia, Sorel etc out of the water in terms of functionality and warmth.
I wore all of them in my life.
You not going to appreciate the beauty and simplicity of it until you actually hold it in your hands.
And one more thing: Enough with the stereotypes already. It’s 2006. As all of you must know by now the bears don’t walk the streets of Moscow. So cool it “cowboys”
In Soviet Russia, ugly boot wears YOU!
La BellaDonna – “galosh” is from “kaloshi” ;-)
I thought the footwear in Maha’s link, though, were cute. Slightly evocative of spats, which I love.
angry russian, I just re-read Big Russian Bear’s post, and realized how funny it was! I’m afraid maybe the humor doesn’t translate?
I got that, i thought it was pretty funny too.
Even my last name which ends in -ski and my thick Polish ankles could not entice me to try the Valenki. Good call, Manolo. From your mouth to Paris Hilton’s ear.
The Ivan Denisovich, he is the great character of the literature, but he is not the paragon of fashion.
Alexander Werth, the British war correspondent who covered the war on the Eastern Front from start to finish and wrote a 1,000 page history of it — “Russia At War 1941-1945″ — spoke quite highly of Valenki. He said it was one of the things that made a difference in 1941 and in 1942 when the Russians were fighting with their backs to the wall in front of Moscow and Stalingrad respectively. The boots allowed Soviet units to operate in conditions that German forces found debilitating. That’s a pretty compelling endorsement of Valenki’s functionality, if not its shelf appeal. (Of course, that doesn’t mean the boots might not leave you feeling cold and miserable, just not suffering from terminal frost bite.)
Hah! La BellaDonna salutes the Lizzie, and appreciates the old Star Trek reference (wherein Ensign Chekhov averred all inventions originated in Moscow). The Romans, they said it was the gallica solea (‘Gallic shoe’), the Old French, it was the ‘galoshe,’ the Russians, whose Peter the Great and Catherine the Great loved all things French, they now have the ‘kaloshi.’ La BellaDonna, she says tomah-to …
Actually – I live in Russia (where we are currently experiencing record cold – negative 35 and the like – and these boots are actually the best thing to keep you warm. Ugly or not, negative 30 and snow is hard on a person, and they’ll do the trick!
Hi, I have a question for Maha…
You provided a picture of a pair of valenkis on January 11th. Do you have any idea where I could find those on the net? Your picture leads to a Russian newspaper…thanks for your help.
i saw the article in the ” New York times ” two weeks ago.
i showed my mother In law , the web site she remembers wearing these boots
as a child in Pennsilvania Her parents are from the Ukraine. She said these boots work well . to keep out the cold winds etc. Even wet days.
Signed Yulka’s Daughter
It’s not a fashion statement, it keeps your feet warm….and up here, thank god for that!