Stud-ying punk style

Now I’d hardly call myself a label snob – as a hardened op shopper it’s not like I can refuse to wear things just because they’re not from Gucci or Prada. If that were the case, I’d be walking around naked (probably not an image you really want over breakfast). But that doesn’t mean I don’t have a bit of label pride.

Recently I found these black leather boots for about $9 at the Salvos, which was pretty exciting, except that they have “WILD LOON” embossed on their sides.
Complete with a picture of a waterbird, to show that they are in fact talking about a BIRD called a loon, and not just some crazy person who has gone wild.

I could see potential in these boots as they were comfy to walk in, plus I like an excuse to fiddle with things, so even though WILD LOON was hardly the glamorous image I wanted to project, I went ahead and bought them. They have been sitting around waiting for me to work my magic on them for some time (since May, in fact, as I bought them at the same time as I bought these bags… aggh that’s THREE MONTHS AGO), but I can now present to you the result of my brainstorming.
You may recall I bought a few offcuts of leather for a jacket recently… well, apart from buying purple scraps, I also bought black, and cut them into strips which I wrapped around the boots in a random sort of fashion (as long as they covered the loon logo, I was happy!), joining pieces using metal studs that I simply poked through the layers of leather as I was going for a bit of a punk effect. The studs have two flat prongs which I bent flat at the back of the leather (yes, I realise I should probably have taken a picture of this as it’s hard to understand. I was actually told to cut slits in the leather using a scalpel to poke the prongs through, but in true punk spirit I ignored this advice. Anarchy, YEAH).

Of course I used studs as decoration too, not just to join the strips.
Part of the reason it took me so long to do anything about these boots was that I couldn’t find studs ANYWHERE (and I am talking about the metal decorative kind, not the male variety which are even more elusive and are definitely NOT available at Lincraft). Finally my sister suggested a scary basement store selling heavy metal gear, bongs, and other such items of which I would normally never have any need… and lo and behold, they sold studs galore. $9 later (the studs I bought were 15c each) I had my stash and completed my punk project while watching TV over a few nights. And then I was ready to fight the system, take on the world, sock it to the man and all that stuff that punks do. But first I had a trivia night to wear them to. Could I BE any more punk?? Next thing you know I’ll be rocking a mohawk at the local bowls club.