Yehaw! Urban cowboys

Cowboy boots never really go away. Like faithful friends they lie lovelorn in the wardrobe waiting for fashion's clarion call to summon them out again. And now it has.

This time around, cowboy boots have been embraced not by Marni-wearing Hillbillies, nor by pseudo-ironic Hoxtonites, but by a strata of London society not best known for its cutting-edge fashion sense. Reader, I give you the public schoolgirl.

There is a certain uniform among public schoolgirls - sawn-off mini, retro T-shirt, pinstripe jacket and cowboy boots - which has been tickling me all summer. Which little Lola started it? Who copied whom first? Up and down Hampstead High Street, herds of Hatties, Lilys and Sophies stomp, leggy as foals, their feet shod in battered cowboy boots from R Soles or Topshop.

Naturally, their slim brown pins make me envious. Like any woman, I lament the passing of my firm-thighed teens. How come they get to look better than I did at that age? We weren't allowed to wear minis. Our firm thighs were left to languish unseen under dowdy anklelength tube skirts. These we wore with pointy flats, buttoned-up shirts and a jumper knotted over our shoulders. The jumper was always from Benetton: the Topshop of the Eighties, only far less sexy.

Getting old sucks. I want to wear mini skirts and cowboy boots, too. But I can't, because people will bitch about me. If you, too, don't want the Lilys to have all the fun, then adapt their look for your age. Cover your legs with black footless tights (slimming) and wear your mini slightly longer. Better still, team your boots with a kneelength flouncy skirt, so that only your calves peep out.

If actual cowboy boots feel a bit "yee haa" for comfort, then Jigsaw has suede boots cut in a cowboy style for £110, which come in beige, plum and green. And if you don't have cowboy boots kicking around from last time, then for God's sake don't go out and buy new ones. Source Portobello or Camden Market for second-hand finds, or try Topshop's vintage selection. Brand-new cowboy boots are a no-no, carrying a stigma roughly akin to exiting the Ladies with your skirt tucked into your knickers, or still not owning an iPod. Hang on. I still don't own an iPod.