Chukka Boots, for Business and Casual Wear – WSJ.com

Repost of WSJ.COM
[CHUKKA] 

An ankle boot with an exotic heritage, the chukka has re-emerged as one of the most popular and versatile men’s footwear options. It’s a neutral, comfortable, no-fuss shoe that occupies a sweet spot on the casual-but-professional continuum. “They’re just easy to slip on. It’s a default shoe,” said J. Crew head of men’s design Frank Muytjens.


Like its cousin, the desert boot, the chukka has gotten a boost lately from other trends. Paired with slim-legged jeans or tapered khakis, chukkas “give you a clean, ’60s silhouette,” Mr. Muytjens noted. Fashion-forward guys are wearing them sockless with shorts or to dress down tailored suits.

chuck

Polo players in the British Army are said to have brought the idea of a calfskin ankle boot over from India and adapted it for the North African desert during World War II. In 1949, when British veteran Nathan Clark, of Clarks shoes, started selling suede, crepe-soled boots based on the ones his fellow officers had been custom-ordering in Cairo’s Khan-el-Khalili bazaar, the modern chukka was born. Clarks’s shoe flourished among proto-hipsters in the ’50s and ’60s, which saw the development of a thicker-soled version called “floats.”

There are also moccasin versions made by the 102-year-old Maine-based shoemaker Quoddy. “For us, the height is really what dictates whether it’s a chukka or not,” said the brand’s vice president of manufacturing, Kevin Shorey. Once marketed as an “Indian boot,” Quoddy’s coveted hand-sewn moccasin is made of just two pieces of leather and covers more of the ankle than the competition—thereby defining a niche for itself in an increasingly crowded field that includes everything from dressier, hand-painted chukkas at Cole Haan to sneaker hybrids at Lanvin.
—Darrell Hartman

Find Yours @ Cole Haan Salvatore Ferragamo

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