Jimmy Choo may be synonymous with the vertiginous stilettos beloved by Carrie Bradshaw, but the London footwear brand’s sturdier Biker Mid is its ultimate IYKYK style. The pull-on boot is crafted from textured biker leather with a tread sole and low stacked heel. It takes utilitarian design cues from engineer boots with tall, straight shafts developed for American industrial workers in the late 1930s and later adopted by motorcyclists, who prized their functional, laceless construction. As engineer boots moved from factory floors to the open road—and became known colloquially as biker boots—their appeal extended beyond purely practical concerns. Worn by Marlon Brando with a leather cap and ringer t-shirt in The Wild One (1953) and James Dean with cuffed jeans and a red bomber jacket in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), the biker boot became synonymous with youthful defiance and, later, a staple of greaser and punk style.
First introduced by Jimmy Choo in 2008, the Biker Mid—then called the Youth—arrived at the height of indie sleaze, when luxury had taken on a more insouciant attitude. Made in Italy, this Choo felt expensive but not precious, with polished, logo-engraved buckles, a matching heel plaque, and a wide shaft perfectly proportioned for tucking in the aughts’ ubiquitous skinny jeans. The Youth’s relaxed attitude also reflected creative director Sandra Choi’s own taste: she wore biker boots on weekends. The Youth was quickly adopted by the likes of Kylie Minogue and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Keira Knightley favored its taller sister, the Yule, a precursor to today’s Biker Knee Boot, wearing it so often with denim and a shearling coat during her 2009 West End debut that the look became something of a stage-door uniform.
Among the Youth’s earliest—and most enduring—fans is New York icon Patti Smith, whose go-to outfit of skinny pants and utilitarian footwear predates the luxury version by decades. She wore one pair of biker boots so hard on tour in the ’70s that they were had to be held together with duct tape; they’re now in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. She upgraded when she snagged a pair of Youth boots with a damaged buckle on sale at Bergdorf Goodman. Describing her aesthetic as “expensive bum,” Smith told the museum, “I like quality. And I have enough money now, which I hadn’t at other times in my life, to buy a fine pair of boots.” After a photo of Smith performing in the well-loved boots caught the brand’s eye, a replacement pair was dispatched to her London hotel—and new Biker Mids have been waiting whenever she’s in town ever since.
Devon Lee Carlson stars in the campaign for The Wardrobe Collection aka “The Choos you can't live without.”
Now, the Biker Mid is on equal footing with the stilettos that made Jimmy Choo famous in the brand’s new Wardrobe Capsule, an edit of 12 classic shoes and five bags chosen for their staying power. “A beautifully crafted shoe or bag isn’t designed for one season; it’s designed to become part of someone’s life,” says Choi. The footwear is evenly split between six heels of 50mm or higher and six flats and low-heeled styles. In the accompanying campaign film, L.A.-based model, entrepreneur and It girl Devon Lee Carlson tries on pair after pair while getting ready for dinner, only to decide she might rather stay home to and play dress-up instead. “I have too many shoe options,” she tells her friends. “I’m going to lose my mind.” In real life, she only wants more: “I think I asked to steal almost every pair from the shoot,” Carlson says. “I’m obsessed with everything Jimmy Choo.”
