Of everything in my wardrobe, the items that never, ever fail to win me compliments are my black stomper boots. Reassuringly solid black leather, with a round toe on a sturdy footbed, a zip at the front and a pull tab at the back. There is nothing remotely pretty about them, but they are a thing of beauty. Don’t take my word for it, though. Like I say, I can’t leave the house without someone – often a stranger, often very stylishly dressed, always female – admiring them.
It was an adorable, designer-wardrobed assassin who made the stomper boot an It shoe. Before Villanelle wore Balenciaga boots with that pink Molly Goddard dress in the first series of Killing Eve, the stomper boot was deliberately, defiantly alt. It was skinheads and punks, goths and rockers. But Villanelle was a prime-time TV celebrity, and with her on board, the boot became a street-style hit. While school-run mums were still wearing vintage floral dresses with white Converse, Copenhagen fashion week influencers, makeup artists on shoots and cool girls in bands began wearing them with stompy boots.
