There are few shoes that provoke such a visceral reaction as the Ugg boot – I pride myself on owning at least a few of them. Shoes that once would have been described as ‘man-repelling’, you know the ones: Crocs, Tabis, anything that vaguely resembles—or, in the case of my Coddies fish sandals, literally depicts—an animal. And yet even against this backdrop of amorphous accessories, the sheepskin stomp has always been a bit of fashion Marmite: cosy to the point of controversy (lest we forget the outrage caused by mums dropping off their kids in ‘dressing gowns and Uggs’, yelled the red tops in the early 2000s), anti-glam yet weirdly… good. And now—like the peplum top and boho maxi skirt before it—Uggs are back.
Of course, Uggs never really left. They simply slipped into that liminal category of clothing that we tend not to take too much notice of: worn on coffee runs, airport concourses and walks. But if the many Y2K revivals have taught us anything, it’s that yesterday’s guilty pleasure is today’s cultural artefact. *Adopts Carrie Bradshaw voice*, are we finally ready to admit we’ve always loved them?
