A Must-Have That, Alas, Was Never to Be

This is a story about a quest for boots. An odyssey really--in the way that beautiful things can make you foolishly obsessive.

The object of my desire: Gucci’s patent leather go-go boots.

If you read any one of the leading American fashion magazines, you know which ones I mean. Every season, a few pieces seem to captivate editors and turn up on so many pages that by season’s end, they’re practically cliche. One year, it was Isaac Mizrahi’s strapless yellow column dress with totem pole design. Another, it was the pink rubber Anna Sui dress with a face etched on its front. Eye-catching in a magazine. Hideous to wear.

But this year, the visual mantra was a pair of gleaming boots with gently squared-off toes, chunky high heels and Gucci signature silver snaffle bits. The glossies showcased them in three colors: Inky black. Frosty white. Cherry red. They’re a racy distant cousin of those staid Gucci loafers of the ‘80s.

Sexy. Impractical. Gotta have ‘em.

I envisioned the boots suddenly revamping all the clothes in my closet: giving new chicness to that old black-and-white houndstooth skirt, zipping up my bare legs (the coolest way to wear boots) with that short yellow-and-black print skirt. I vowed to wear them with everything.

Unfortunately, the entire fashion-forward population was similarly salivating. Gucci is hot these days under its new designer, American Tom Ford, and its aggressive ad campaigns, full of velvety color pictures, have fueled its popularity.

The Italian-made boots hadn’t even landed on L.A. soil when would-be buyers sprang up on a waiting list last summer at the Beverly Hills Gucci store. Even songstress Jody Watley was cooling her bootless heels on the list, according to the woman in the shoe department.

I arrived on my first reconnaissance mission to the sedately elegant boutique in late summer. I hadn’t committed to buying. (Or so I told myself.) I simply wanted to see the boots in person. Touch them. Slip them on. Instead, I am invited to wait with the rest of L.A. for an audience.

The salesperson pulled out a thick book of photographs of Gucci footwear and pointed out the go-go boot.

“It’s really reasonably priced, $495,” she said.

Uh-huh. Well, there’s nothing rational about being in love with a boot, anyway. Besides, it doesn’t cost anything to wait on a list. Sign me up for a 9 1/2, I said.

*

Summer turned to later summer, which turned to fall--and still there was no word from Gucci. I called. They are still waiting for The Boots, a woman said with a sigh.

Fall turned to later fall. I called again. “Who did you leave your name with?” a salesman asked. I described the woman.

“She doesn’t work here anymore,” he said.

I ask if they have The Boots.

“We got only a few pairs of 9 1/2s,” he said.

Suddenly, the boots were being talked about in the past tense.

“But I’ll check and see if I can find a pair and give you a call,” he said sympathetically.

Right. The sales equivalent of a guy saying, “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

Determined to see for myself, I returned to the store. It took five seconds to spy them--a cluster of go-go boots in five colors (Five! Wow, I thought there were only three!) sitting on a little round table shining like jewels. Now, I was ready to make a commitment.

I flagged down a harried saleswoman and asked for a 9 1/2 in black.

“We don’t have it,” she said.

“How about white?”

“We never got anything larger than a 9,” she insisted as she hurried away.

I peeked into each display boot for the size. All five said 7 1/2. I was stung but refused to give up.

*

On a hunch, I drove over to the newly renovated Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills. The ground floor is a shoe wonderland. I roamed the vast plains of shelves and tables until I found a little cove of Gucci. There it was--one black go-go boot.

I plucked it off the table and headed for a salesman. He saw me approaching and smiled ruefully--or was it a smirk?

“That’s the only one I have,” he said. “If you wear a 5, it’s yours.”

But he was an enterprising salesman. “Let me call New York,” he said, heading to a phone in hopes of getting another Saks to medevac the boots to me. It’s 3:45 on a Saturday afternoon here. Wouldn’t the New York store be closed? No matter. He was back with an answer.

“No one has any boots except New York and San Francisco,” he explained. “As soon as I asked about the boots, they said, ‘Please don’t say you need a large size.’ ”

I was chagrined. I was annoyed. How can a major shoe manufacturer sell out of a trendy, non-classic, impractical boot priced at $495 a pair? Who was buying these things? (Of course, this is like getting stuck in traffic at an odd hour and asking, “Where are all these people going?”)

“And you would have needed a 10,” the salesman added. “If you’re a 9 1/2, you need the larger size. They’re terrible to walk in because the heel is so high.” I felt somewhat consoled. They would have been uncomfortable. I was on the waiting list for the wrong size. I told him a Gucci saleswoman said the store never got 9 1/2s.

“We got 10s,” he said smugly.

Why didn’t Gucci make more? “They didn’t know it would be this popular,” he said, sounding surprised himself.

Apparently, he was right. Gucci representatives said they have been stunned--pleasantly, of course--by the demand for everything Gucci, from their satin blouses and hip huggers to the horse bit belt and footwear.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Sandra Schofield, assistant manager of the Gucci store in Beverly Hills. “With the boots. And the pump? Oh, my God. We couldn’t get enough of anything.”

*

A few days later I called the Gucci store in Chicago to inquire about the boots, figuring that women in a land where it snows and rains so much would nix anything that doesn’t look made for weather.

“We have a 10 in navy,” said the Chicago saleswoman.

But navy boots just won’t retool my mostly black wardrobe. I passed.

It turned out that the buyers for the 22 Gucci stores in the United States placed their orders long before the ads and the fashion writers whipped customers into a Gucci frenzy. “It’s not something that’s mass-produced,” said Lisa Schiek, director of public relations for Gucci. “It’s made in Italy and has to get shipped over here.” Schiek told me that among celebrity owners of the boots are Madonna and Nicole Kidman. (Wonder how much time they spent on a waiting list?)

And store buyers are not perfect. “The response was so out of proportion that no one could have anticipated this,” she said.

On top of that, the boots ran small, pushing customers up half a size, said Schofield, adding that most of her customers fall between a 7 and 9. Suddenly, there was greater demand for larger sizes.

Schofield said she’s sure that the store did at some point get my size--contrary to what a saleswoman told me. “We probably had reservations against them,” Schofield said. “I would hate to think we missed you.”

In New York, Schiek was similarly sympathetic.

“Would you like me to look for a pair?” she asked. “Or is it over for you?”

Yes, I’ve left Gucci behind. I’ve found another pair of patent leather boots--with a more sensible heel. And yet, they just don’t have the thick glossy finish of those Gucci boots.

“It’s iridescent,” Schiek explained with a touch of reverence. “It’s not just regular patent leather. It was made specially for us.”