I'm going to be dressing up in garb for the first time in a while, and I have most of my outfit planned, except for the footware. I'm getting a poet's shirt made, and will be wearing some sort of black drawstring pants, and a ring belt. I will also likely make a vest. My question is on the footwear. I'm looking for something reasonably priced, yet comfortable and versatile. I'd prefer something that could be worn in regular life, and not just as part of my costume.
Any suggestions? I've been looking at brown leather pull on boots. I also considered getting some of the boot covers, but the only "boots" I have are my lace up Doc Marten's, and I don't know if the covers would cover up the laces. I'm looking to be reasonably accurate to the times, but I am willing to sacrifice some accuracy for comfort (not that I'll wear white tennis shoes).
I've even thought about something like this: http://www.leatherup.com/p/Mens-Motorcycle-Boots/Mens-Brown-Xelement-Advanced-Motorcycle-Boots/41821.html
I own something like this: http://www4.jcpenney.com/jcp/X6.aspx?GrpTyp=CLR&ItemID=19d90a0&DeptID=70673&CatID=73284&SO=0&SelDim=4~&x5view=1&Ne=8+4+5+3+14+23+904+18+833+949&shopperType=G&N=4294944629+4294966910&Nao=21&PSO=0&CmCatId=70673|73284 and I've thought about making my pants breeches and wearing those, as I've seen that in pictures here on the site, but I don't know how that would look.
Any help is appreciated. Faire is just 5 weeks away, so I'm scrambling (as usual).
One minor thing first: The ring belt isn't period. It's a fairism. If you are cool with that, fine. But I know far too many people -including myself- you fell for the "they didn't have real belt buckles" line and yet every portrait and archeology dig ever done shows otherwise.
Not the JCpenny shoes but the Leather Ups actually look very nice. You might be interested in looking at extant examples of shoes and boots here: http://www.larsdatter.com/shoes.htm (http://www.larsdatter.com/shoes.htm)
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=695397&imageID=811328&total=119&num=0&word=Capes%20%28Clothing%29%20--%201500-1599&s=3¬word=&d=&c=&f=2&k=3&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=20&pos=9&e=r&print=small
(http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=695397&imageID=811328&total=119&num=0&word=Capes%20%28Clothing%29%20--%201500-1599&s=3¬word=&d=&c=&f=2&k=3&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=20&pos=9&e=r&print=small)
I'm going for the ring belt because I like the look, to be honest.
Plain, undecorated loafers look pretty good. The ones without a seam around the top of the foot.