Facts about wellies

[RainyDee]

Facts about wellies

1. The Wellington boot, also known as a welly, a wellie, or a gumboot, is a type of boot based upon Hessian boots worn and popularised by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington and fashionable among the British aristocracy in the early 19th century.

The first Duke of Wellington, instructed his shoemaker, Hoby of St. James Street, London, to modify the 18th century Hessian boot. The resulting new boot designed in soft calfskin leather had the trim removed and was cut closer around the leg.

It was hard wearing for battle yet comfortable for the evening.

The Iron Duke didn't know what he'd started—the boot was dubbed the Wellington and the name has stuck ever since.

These boots quickly caught on with patriotic British gentlemen eager to emulate their war hero. Considered fashionable and foppish in the best circles, they remained the main fashion for men through the 1840s. In the 1950s they were more commonly made in the calf high version and in the 1960s they were both superseded by the ankle boot, except for riding.

2. All these boots were made of leather, however in America, where there was more experimentation in shoemaking, producers were beginning to manufacture with rubber.

One such entrepreneur, Mr. Henry Lee Norris, moved to Scotland in search of a suitable site to produce rubber footwear. Having acquired a block of buildings in Edinburgh, known as the Castle Silk Mills, the North British Rubber Company (much, much later to become the Hunter Rubber Company makers of Hunter Rubber Wellington Boots) was registered as a limited liability company in September 1856.

3. Wellington boots are waterproof and are most often made from rubber or a synthetic equivalent though in its origins it was made of leather. It is usually worn when walking on very wet or muddy ground, or to protect the wearer from industrial chemicals.

4. In Britain, there is a light-hearted sport, known as wellie wanging, which involves the throwing of Wellington boots as far as possible. The boots are also popular fetish items among many people.

5. The boot has also given its name to the welly boot dance, said to have been performed by miners in Africa to keep their spirits up whilst working.

Wellington boots, though invented in Britain, are very popular in Canada, particularly in springtime, when melting snows leave wet and muddy ground for a couple of months. Children can be seen wearing them to school and taking them to summer camps.

Green Wellingtons are most popular in Britain, while black Wellingtons, particularly with red or green soles, remain the favourite of Canadians. Yellow-soled black Wellingtons are often seen in the US, in addition to Canadian styles. Wellingtons specifically made for cold weather, lined with warm insulating material, are especially popular during Canadian winters.

In New Zealand, where they are called gumboots, they are considered essential foot wear for farmers. Gumboots are often referred to in Kiwi popular culture such as Footrot Flats. In the late 1970s, John Clarke's alter ego Fred Dagg had a hit song with "If it weren't for your Gumboots", a thin reworking of Billy Connolly's original. The farming town of Taihape in New Zealand's North Island proclaims itself "Gumboot capital of the World" and has annual competitions such as Gumboot throwing. . While Finland hosts a yearly Boot-Throwing World Championship.

Most gumboots are black, but those used in hospitals by operating theatre staff and surgeons are white, and children's sizes come in multiple colours. In some parts of Ireland one can hear older people refer to their Wellington boots as "me topboots", usually black in colour, as this was a popular name for Wellingtons in the 1960s.


5. Rubber fetishism is the fetishistic attraction to people wearing rubber, or in certain cases, to the garments themselves. Closely related to rubber fetishism is PVC fetishism, related to shiny clothes made of the synthetic plastic polyvinyl chloride (PVC).



Some "PVC" clothes are actually made from a mixture of polyester (58-80%) and polyurethane (PU) (20-42%). Just to add to the confusion, this is sometimes described as just "PU". An alternative mix includes PVC (63%), polyester (27%), and PU (10%). Pure PU clothes seem rare. The alt.lycra FAQ notes that PU "is a type of 'plastic' material that is very similar to rubber in many respects but has many superior characteristics and none of rubber's 'bad' habits."

One reason why rubber and other tight shiny fabrics may be fetishised is perhaps that the garment forms a "second skin" that acts as a fetishistic surrogate for the wearer's own skin. Thus, wearers of skin-tight rubber or PVC garments may be perceived by the viewer as being naked, or simply coated in a shiny substance like paint. Rubber and PVC can also be polished to be shiny and can also be produced in bright colours, adding further visual stimulus to add to the physical sensations produced by the material. The tightness of the garments may also be viewed as a kind of sexual bondage. The smell of latex rubber is also a turn-on for some rubber fetishists.

However, some rubber enthusiasts are also turned on by the wearing of draped rubber garments such as cloaks. Other rubber paraphernalia, such as gas masks and Wellington boots, are also often added to the scenario. Some PVC enthusiasts are turned on by PVC Hazmat suits and other forms of industrial protective clothing.

A substantial industry exists to produce specialist rubber fetish clothing garments for rubber enthusiasts.

The International Association of Rubberists is a free online support community for those who may be struggling with their fetish. It is also a vast source of information on the rubberist subculture and its related industry.

The artworks of Allen Jones have been strongly influenced by the imagery of rubber fetishism and BDSM.

There are a number of specialist rubberist magazines devoted to this fetish, including:

AtomAge
Dressing for Pleasure
Marquis
«O»
Shiny International
Skin Two

6. In the 1970s, Scottish comedian Billy Connolly adopted a comical ode to the boot called "The Welly Boot Song" as his theme tune and it became one of his best-known songs

The Welly Boot Song
(from the LP "The Pick of Billy Connolly")

" If it wasn't for your wellies where would you be
You'd be in the hospital or infirmary
'Cause you would have a dose of the flu or even pleurisy
If you didn't have your feet in your wellies

Oh wellies they are wonderful, oh wellies they are swell
'Cause they keep out the water and they keep in the smell
And when you're sitting in a room you can always tell
When some bugger takes off his wellies

If it wasn't for your wellies where would you be
You'd be in the hospital or infirmary
'Cause you would have a dose of the flu or even pleurisy
If you didn't have your feet in your wellies

Oh and when you're out walking in the country with a bird
And you're strolling over fields just like a farmer's herd
And somebody shouts, "Keep off the grass" and you think how absurd
and SQUELCH you find why farmers all wear wellies

If it wasn't for your wellies where would you be
You'd be in the hospital or infirmary
'Cause you would have a dose of the flu or even pleurisy
If you didn't have your feet in your wellies

There's fishermen and firemen, there's farmers and all
Men out digging ditches and working in the snow
This country it would grind to a halt and not a thing would grow
If it wasn't for the workers in their wellies

If it wasn't for your wellies where would you be
You'd be in the hospital or infirmary
'Cause you would have a dose of the flu or even pleurisy
If you didn't have you're feet in your wellies

Oh Edward, Heath and Wilson they haven't made a hit
So you'd better get your feet in your wellies

If it wasn't for your wellies where would you be
You'd be in the hospital or infirmary
'Cause you would have a dose of the flu or even pleurisy
If you didn't have you're feet in your wellies "

7. Rubber is a natural product obtained from the sap of the Havea tree.

Wellie wanging, or wellie throwing, is a freestyle sport that originated in Britain
British Isles (terminology).
Competitors are required to hurl a Wellington boot

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[Jjai]

I never knew half of those facts about wellies other than I love to wear mine at every opportunity. I have Three pairs One pair of Grey Hunters the oldest, another pair of shiny Yellow but my favourite are my Glossy Navy Blue Hunters which seem to go well with anything - Jeans or normal Trousers, but they are best worn with my Blue corduroy trousers, thick rollneck jumper and heavy PVC trenchcoat for lovely long beach walks at this time of year.

[evad]

Great bunch of facts! A few corrections, though... Polyurethane is NOT a plastic... It is in the man made rubber family of urethanes. Latex is the only natural rubber, all others are synthetic: Buna-nitrile, Neoprene, Styrene butadine rubber (SBR) and the like.

[Juppe]

Hi Evad,
let it be called plastic in everyday language, even if I agree that it may not be the most suitable name for PU. But it's not rubber either. Ofcourse to be exact one should call urethanes as elastomers, one of the most promising group of man made synthetic materials today.