Boots and All

NOVEMBER 7TH, 2011

Peter Elliot’s eclectic new UES boot boutique goes far beyond footwear.

Peter Elliot Boots, etc. Photo by Chelsea Curtis. 

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If there were a benevolent king of the Upper East Side, he might be Peter Elliot. With five stores in a 12-block radius, Elliot has spent 35 years raining good things down on the people of uptown Manhattan. His shops include a 24-hour emergency tailoring service, a women’s boutique, and even a store that specializes in blue clothing (you read that right: blue blazers, blue shirts, blue everything). Now, with his newest venture, Peter Elliot Boots, etc., the Charleston, South Carolina–born tastemaker is having some fun.

“This is my play store,” says Elliot, as he takes me on a tour of his new shop. Our first stop: a bicycle. I think he can tell I’m a little confused (being that we are in what he said was a boot store). He adds: “If I like it, the quality is great, and it has whimsy, I’ll sell it. That’s what the ‘etcetera’ means [in the store’s name].”

After taking a closer look, I understand. This bicycle was handmade by a craftsman in Brooklyn for Bowery Lane Bicycle. It has soft leather handle grips and a saddle crafted by Brooks England, a company that has specialized in leather saddles for more than 150 years ($12,000).

The tour continues with playful jackets, a Chapal vintage leather riding helmet ($1,930), and, of course, boots. Peter Elliot Boots, etc. carries them in every style and material—distressed leather, cowboy boots, all-weather boots for children, and Elliot’s personal favorite: a pair of Aigle tan canvas desert boots modeled after those worn by the French Foreign Legion ($190).

The new store will also carry a treasury of collectibles that Elliot has picked up over a lifetime. Each tells a story. Take the Alfred Dunhill wood pipes, for instance. He acquired them in 1970 on a trip to the newly opened Club Med in Martinique, where he spotted them in a dingy shop. The pipes were in poor condition, but Elliot noticed the white dots on the top of the hand-cut mouthpieces—the Dunhill signature—and knew they would be worth something. Now cleaned and restored, the pipes retail for $250 and up.

Other great finds include a Limoges china box, hand-wrought silver flatware, Hermès scarves from the 1950s, tin toys handmade at the turn of the century, alligator-skin cigarette cases, and a bamboo chair from Kenya. I spent four hours browsing and could easily have stayed much longer.

“We’ve been in business for 35 years, and we’re just starting to kick it out,” says Elliot. In many ways, I realize, Peter Elliot Boots, etc. is a testament to a life well lived.