For all its global sophistication, Langham, whose name adorned London’s first grand hotel in 1865, has a British heart. To celebrate it, the hotelier has aligned with Edinburgh-based bootmaker Hunter for a limited-edition Wellington boot in the hospitality company’s signature color, a cotton-candy pink known officially as Pantone 706.
The pink boots, which run $80 for kid sizes and $150 for adults, are available in limited quantities—starting today, June 5—in the gift shops of Langham hotels in London, New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Sydney, Melbourne, and Hong Kong. A pair of the boots is also included in the Langham London’s loaded Ultimate Royal Season Package, which will set you back from £15,000 to £25,000 ($20,000 to $34,000). If a Langham stay isn’t in your immediate future, you can order online directly from one of the eight hotels’ gift shops.
Wellington boots, which first appeared around 1817, take their name from Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington—to whom, in the words of ABBA, at Waterloo Napoleon did surrender. Wellesley commissioned from London shoemaker George Hoby a tall beeswax-coated calfskin military boot that would wear well in the field but look fittingly foppish in town. Wellies were an immediate success, and in the 1850s, companies in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom—including Hunter—were making vulcanized rubber versions of Lord Wellington’s design for agricultural workers and, during World War I, for soldiers fighting in muddy trenches.
Hunter earned two British Royal Warrants for its waterproof Wellies—from HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. The boots became fixtures in British mudrooms, and by the 1950s, Brits were wearing them as much for fashion as for function. Dark green is traditional, but Hunter has dabbled in rainbow hues for decades, and the Langham pink models are as authentic and indefatigable as any pair in the Queen’s closet.
They’re not merely pink, they’re Langham Pink, aka Pantone color 706.
Courtesy of Langham Hotels
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