Best Kept Secrets of Mature Women for a Great Boot Topper Look

Boot topper are often associated with teens and college gals. However, they can enhance your style when added strategically. Read this ultimate guide on how to style boot toppers to learn about the advantages of wearing them also as a mature woman.  Pretending to have a larger collection of footwear than you actually own, and enhancing your thermal comfort in winter is very mature. This guide covers not only how you can achieve all these goals at any age, it also provides a tutorial how to wear them, the secrets to style them, and tips how to make them.

Updated: 10/10/2021

Contents

Disclosure: This post has affiliate links.

What Are Boot Toppers?

Have you ever heard about boot toppers? Full disclosure, I never saw or heard of boot toppers before moving to Alaska. Boot toppers are socks that have a faux fur top. One can adjust the length of the socks so the faux fur will top the boot. No matter, whether the height is ankle, half-calves or below the knee. Best, the trim closes the cold bridge between the shoe and the leg. Do I have to mention that the socks also prevent snow from entering when you have to step in deep fresh snow for whatever reason?

Stylist tip: You can easily make a pair yourself by sewing a faux fur with a zig zag stitch onto the open end of a pair of knee-high socks while stretching the opening as wide as possible.

Putting on boot toppers is as easy as 1-2-3. Put on the socks, then the boots, fold the faux fur over the boot top, and go. It took me less than a minute to put them in place (see photos below), and adding on accessories. Think of it as doubling your socks in your boots.

Pro tip: Always buy your winter boots a size larger than your summer shoes. More on avoiding cold feet at frigid temperatures at the link.

Pro tip: Don’t worry about the boot toppers getting dirty. They are hand-washable, but you also can DIY dry-clean at home or bring them to the dry cleaners if you like.

Boot Toppers Are A Stylish Way to Keep Your Feet Warm in Cold Weather

In cold climate regions, boot toppers are not a trend showing up once in a while. They are not considered fashion. They are an eternal, necessary part of a winter outfit suited to bear the cold for a limited amount of time. Thus, here, what seems to be a trend in other parts of the world is part of the normal winter gear, and hence personal style for the woman wearing them. They are part of avoiding cold feet at frigid temperatures.

Enlarge Your Shoe Wardrobe without Breaking the Bank

Boot toppers can help you save money (more saving tips for clothes shopping in this guide). They are a must-have when you want to add more options to your winter footwear collection without actually forking over the money for a couple of new pairs of boots.

Do the math yourself.

Assumed you have a pair of ankle boots, a pair of calf-length boots, and a pair of knee-high boots. Just one pair of boot toppers will double your boot options. You seemingly have six pair of boots. If you buy two pairs of boot toppers or one pair of boot toppers plus one pair of accessories, you will have already nine different options. Thus, investing in boot toppers will not only help not to get cabin fever, save money on boots, but also brings a fun factor to your winter wardrobe.

Style Reasons Why to Wear Them

Style-wise, boot toppers can give you the finishing touch for your outfit. They can lengthen the boot to end at a more flattering point. This means they can balance your outfit. Boot topper can make a casual outfit look polished or cute. They take a classic, corporate workplace outfit or business casual look  (see example below) from uniform-like to notable. Furthermore, they can help you to stand out of the crowd. Finally, these socks add so many additional options to your style. They are awesome.

How to Have Ageless Style with Boot Toppers

Nevertheless, at a certain age, women have to pay attention how to wear boot toppers when they want this extra layer of protection on their feet, and/or extend the height of their boots. The goal is a timeless look. You want to look effortlessly chic.

Creating the Illusion of One Unit Is Key

To achieve this goal, the boots or booties and boot topper must look as if they are a unit, i.e. as if the shoes came that way. This means the colors of the boot toppers and shoes must work together and the vibe must be a natural match too. Red faux fur, for instance, would work on red boots, while a white boot topper on red boots would look like you are wearing Santa Claus’ wife’s boots 😉
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Besides their natural match with black faux fur, black boots look great with white faux furs that have a hint of black or tan faux fur with hints of black.

Inspirations for Tall Boots with Toppers

The following photos show outfit ideas with knee-high galoshes. More on how to wear tall boots in the guide at the link.

Styling Booties with Faux Fur Trimmed Socks

In the first photos of this post, I matched my chocolate brown booties that have a Louis XIV heel and a big suede button as embellishment, with a faux chinchilla in different hues of browns. The little plateau sole makes it believable that the top belongs to the booties. I also pulled the socks a bit higher than the top of the booties to get the proportions right and believable. See third photo in this post for details.

Stylist’s tip: When you wear boot toppers, you have to watch the proportions like a designer.

Styling Heeled Ducks

The photos below show inspirations to get more variety in your footwear closet by adding faux fur trimmed socks to your ducks.

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Boot Toppers up Your Winter Outerwear

We usually take the photos for the “indoor” outfit first. When I was putting on my “outdoor” outfit, my photographer said “put your boot toppers on”. I was like “why are you saying this?” He said “I like them.” I was a little irritated, why would a guy like boot toppers, and asked “Why do you like them?”. He said “They look so friendly and brighten up the boots”.

Read more on styling your outerwear.

Why to Swap Your Footwear at Work

At the office, it may be too warm for the extra socks and boots are heavy. Therefore, use a large work bag and put a pair of pumps in a shoe bag. Once arrived at the office, switch the footwear (see the photo of the indoor outfit below).

Benefit: Your feet won’t sweat. The hard part: Not forgetting to take the pumps back home.

At the end of winter, I often have a couple of pumps under my desk. ;)Do you top your footwear in winter? What is your styling challenge? Let me know how I can help you.

You can see the outfit is styled for cold wet weather with -32.8F (-36^oC) when you look at the photos. Under my outwear outfit, I am wearing a stripped shirt under a cashmere sweater under my leather sheath dress. Not to mention the long sleeved underwear, a slip and two pairs of tights. The shirt and sheath are items that I wear year round.

How to Style Boot Toppers in a Nutshell

Boot toppers are more than a statement piece. They means more variety in your boot and booties wardrobe, and you can add a stylish touch and interest to your outerwear look. Well, last, but not least, as an enhanced insulation to avoid cold feet at frigid temperatures, and protection from getting snow in your booties on a day with 5 to 6 inch of fresh snow in the parking lot. They can be worn at any age when the ensemble looks like being designed this way.

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Photos of me: G. Kramm

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