Gear Review - La Botte Gardiane Boots

Giddy yup or giddy nope?

La Botte Gardiane Gardiolo boots

Let me start things off by emphatically stating that these bad boys are a GIDDY YUP but we maybe could do with a little backstory so let’s roll the scroll back a turn. It all started when an old lady made fun of me…

About 2 years ago I was in Rome with the amigos; Zachary Weiss, Andreas Klöw, The J.Mueser boys, Robbie Spangle, Max Poglia, and Todd Ritondaro. We had all taken a little break from touristing around the Roman landmarks to refuel and espresso up in a tiny cafe. My guy, Chase Winfrey, was wearing this super dope vintage Stetson that he got off e-Bay and somewhat shaped himself. As is won’t to happen in menswear we all wanted to try the hat on and see what we looked like in it. Did I mention it was DOPE?

As we did so there was a large contingent of Italian nonnas at a table to the right of us and they all took it in turns to sweetly tell us how handsome each of us was as we donned said chapeau; if memory serves they said that Chase looked like a young Elvis. That is until I plopped it onto MY massive dome. I looked over expectantly, wondering which Golden Age Hollywood heartthrob I most resembled (please be Mitchum, please be Mitchum…) and as a one their faces fell. A single ‘Non, mi spiace.’ was uttered with a wave of the hand and back they went to their coffees. Crestfallen, I handed the cowboy hat back to Chase who, like the gentlemen he is, didn’t utter a word.