Merry Christmas to...me

Merry Christmas to me. My gift to myself, a pair of Harris Tweed Clarks Desert Boots sitting pretty under the tree.

Over the last week or two I have been running around central London on the hunt for the perfect Christmas presents for my friends and family. As you all know, this can be a quite traumatic time at the best of times but when you add freezing temperatures to the mix you have a foul tasting cocktail. Whilst dashing to and from work and around the shops I have fallen prey to the ice and snow. In fact I have tripped on my sorry behind no less than four times in as many days, bruising my forearm, arse and ego in the process. Oh woe was me. By Sunday morning I was feeling more than a little sorry for myself and turned to a spot of personal retail therapy for comfort. However, rather than succumbing to rabid consumerist hysteria I made an astute, practical and measured purchase, a pair of Harris Tweed Clarks Desert Boots at half price no less!

I was surprised to find a mini-boot keyring packed in with my boots.

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Desert Boot, Clarks Originals created six unique, new designs (three for women and three for men). t is amazing to think that these stylish staples were first invented in a Burmese military outpost by a young Nathan Clark. The original boots inspiration is a crepe soled boot made from rough, suede in Cairo's fabled Old Bazaar and it was soon the off-duty English Army officers footwear of choice. There are a plethora of different desert boots out there made by all sorts of names but why deviate from the original? To mark the anniversary Clarks Originals created a look inspired by each of the six decades that the Desert Boot has spent as an essential fashion item. As soon as the anniversary boots were released back in September my head was turned by the Harris Tweed, 1950's pair...

The certified mark of Harris Tweed.

For such a burly and utilitarian fabric, Harris Tweed evokes an a great deal of romantically nostalgic feelings and ever since I watched the recent BBC4 series Tweed (discussed here), I have been hooked on this very special cloth. As mentioned previously, the colours are deceptively beautiful. A Harris Tweed yarn will routinely contain seven or eight different coloured wools, which are all blended together and then spun to create an amazingly rich texture of colour and I'm afraid these pictures fail to do the cloth justice.

Harris Tweed Clarks Desert Boots worn red socks from Uniqlo and wool trousers from COS.

This a tweed still woven by pedal-powered looms in the homes of Scottish sheep herders out in the outermost fringe of the British Isles. It has been this way since 1846. I now understand the history and the provenance of the cloth. There is something quite special about the Isle of Harris, Lewis and that northern chain of Hebridean islands. The materials and the colours are redolent of the sea, and the grass, the rugged life, the farming. I'm so pleased that a company like Clarks has realised the beauty of the cloth. I believe that the end result is a fitting tribute to both the cloth and the desert boot.

It seems that I'm not the only one taken with my new boots...Patch (the patchwork tweed dog from Muji) has found a new friend.