Margaret Howell, Original Gangster

If the idea of a British Jil Sander makes your heart beat faster, then let me introduce you to Margaret Howell. Like my man Tim Blanks says, very little changes with Margaret Howell's clothes season to season. Chalk it up to getting it right the first time. Or, perhaps, she just continually finds so much to explore in her sharply-drawn, eminently precise vision of how to dress.

The way she dresses her models reminds me of how people used to dress in the remote Wyoming mountain town where I grew up. It was ramshackle, but purpose-built, with a surprising romanticism. Look closely: nestled among her straight-laced garments is a bright red fairy heart.

I simply adore these boots. Satan or someone similarly placed has kept them out of my hands lo these many years, but I haven't given up hope.