Perfect pairing – Red Wing and Nudie
After a long hiatus I’m finally revisiting Nudie jeans. I used to wear Nudie a lot, back in the early days of skinny jeans, when you couldn’t prise me out of my Super Slim Kims. When they stopped making those, I moved on, by then to boyfriends, eventually slipping back into my default 501s.
But Nudie is back on my radar, specifically these Loose Leif jeans, which are rigid organic dark denim. I don’t like stretch in my jeans, and I don’t much like different washes either. I prefer old school cowboy rinses that fade naturally, or black or white. The shape of these are great; I haven’t even needed to alter them, I just turned them up (I washed them first to gauge the right length). I like them at an ankle swinger length so I can wear them with every type of shoe. So far I’ve tried them with flat Church’s sandals, Converse hi-tops, Jack Purcells, Church’s brogues, and even my stack heeled knee high boots. (As the jeans are cut straight and not tapered, they accommodate knee boots pretty well.)
And they’re an excellent fit with the new Red Wing boots for women. If you’re familiar with men’s Red Wings then you’ll know these are well-loved utility boots made from the most beautiful, hardwearing leather. Red Wing has decided to give women our own version, with three collections – Legacy, Modern and Core. Mine (the ‘6″ Moc’ from the Core collection) come in three colours and I can also recommend the Short Engineer boot, a slim not-too-chunky-soled biker boot. These are essentially scaled down versions of the men’s, but lighter in weight, with softer leathers which come from the S.B Foot Tannery Company, as all Red Wing leathers do.
Mr DRG made faces about this combo, because he thinks it’s too butch, but for autumn I plan to wear it with soft collarless shirts and blouses and some of my vintage gold jewellery. My go-to bad weather Timberland boots bit the dust recently so the Red Wings are a timely replacement (thank you Red Wing). The only thing is they need breaking in, so I’ve got my big tweedy socks on standby.
The other great thing about both Nudie and Red Wing is that they improve with age. And should you need to, there are aftercare services to revive and repair your jeans or boots, which makes them a worthwhile lifetime purchase.
Above clockwise from top left: Nudie Loose Leif jeans; Margaret Howell shirt; Coach bag (vintage); Red Wing ‘6″ Moc’ boots for women; Hermes Medor watch; Nasomatto perfume (Pardon); various rings and bracelets
Buy Red Wing boots for women from Red Wing, Newburgh Street, London W1
Buy Nudie jeans from Nudie Jeans Repair Shop in Soho or Shoreditch or online
WORDS AND IMAGES: Disneyrollergirl/Navaz Batliwalla
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