When I was young my mother told me that red was my signature color.  So it’s no surprise that when we hit the boutiques along lower Broadway to look for boots she pulled a pair of classic Cherry Red Dr. Martens off the shelf and asked me to try them on.

Dr. Martens have shed their counter-cultural image.  They’re no longer worker shoes or punker shoes, and are produced in all sorts of insane and unnecessary variations (flowered, plaid, metallic, high-heeled).  The Cherry Red ten-hole, one of boot’s original styles, is a darkened red, not an obvious, look-at-me red.  The shade accentuates the piecing and stitching, details that are lost on the black boots, and complements the clear rubber sole and yellow stitching.  It’s the most elegant version of the boot.