Make a splash: how to buy the best pair of gumboots

Knee-high gumboots offer protection for your calves but also, importantly, your pants, while ankle height boots tend to be easier to style. Photograph: helivideo/Getty Images/iStockphoto

While the rain we’re experiencing isn’t really the run-outside-and-jump-in-puddles kind, few things might be more comforting during this extremely wet season than a pair of gumboots.

Fashion stylist Rhys Ripper says growing up on a farm, he found gumboots so handy he would often venture out only in socks, jocks and gumboots. As long as you’ve got gumboots on, he says, “you can run outside and feed the chooks or grab some firewood” without a worry in the world.