The Low-Down

The weather in Western New England right now, as some of you have experienced, is extremely mild for Late December. We are expecting to stay in the upper 40s, low 50s through Christmas and perhaps even on into the New Year. It's that in between weather when young teens assume they can get away with summer t-shirts, camisoles, and short skirts and it's often colder inside than it is outside. In this kind of weather, the right accessories make all the difference. A lovely embroidered shawl thrown over the shoulders and a warm pair of boots mean you are both beautiful and smart, a trendsetter completely prepared for the occasional chill.

Coming up in the new year, we'll review how some of the boots we have raved over at Boots Mania in 2006 have performed in field tests in the categories of comfort, warmth, popularity (measured by the number of compliments received by wearers), durability/ease of care (who wants to worry about whether their suede boots with the white fleece-tops still look as pristine as the day they bought them?), and of course sexiness.