ask mrs. exeter; At what age do you give ankle boots the boot.

Question: Ankle boots? Are designers kidding? Although I understand intellectually that they can give a kick to a simple day dress this fall, a change of proportions that makes everything old look new again, I fail to see why anyone who was of voting age during the Clinton years, especially part one, would choose to wear them. Who wants to be Mrs. Heavy Feet? In boots, isn't it better to stick with knee-high heights?

Answer: Regardless of age, from Malibu to Middleburg, ankle boots, high-heeled and otherwise, can be worn only if you have the legs for them-long and certainly slim. They will make every other leg look shorter than it is, and/or thicker. Who wants that? No one.

And with any new shoe, there always is the matter of locomotion. Shoes should be to best-dressed women what wings are to swans, grand mediums for gracious motion. If these high-concept constructed ankle boots with their extra weight in leather, bells, or whistles hamper your elegant sway in any way, well, then the shoe just doesn't fit, does it? Shoes are fashionable when they are empowering, not binding.

But you needn't miss the allure of the high-heeled ankle boot if you select carefully. Consider not the most outre offerings but what some might call a shoe-boot, low-cut and sloping on the uppers toward the toe so it actually elongates the leg . . . see Balenciaga's pink-and-purple satin number, for example, Chanel's Victorian-like ankle boosters with diamantes, and elegant cordovans from Dior, to name a few.

I am speaking to all ages now: Do wear opaque tights to harmonize the look of skirts with ankle boots. For the very young with very long limbs, you might try two-toned, ribbed, footless knee socks with these footwear fascinators to achieve the faux-tough gamine look that is such a big beam in fashion these days.

Did you know that, like so many must-haves lately, the ankle boot came into vogue during the Victorian era? The "lower limbs," as the Victorians called legs, were considered so provocative in those prissy times that ankle boots evolved to cover any skin peeking from underneath long skirts and crinolines. Even table legs inside the house were covered. As a result of such repression, ankle boots provided great grist for Victorian pornographers. Nowadays, when the only thing shocking is random acts of kindness, isn't it rather quaint to recall a time when ankles could cause scandals?

Since the sixties, about every ten years or so ankle boots have become the rage again. "I seem to remember a time when my mother used to wear them, perhaps from the late, great Maud Frizon. She also indulged in Koos patchwork sweaters and leather pants. I don't think she looks back at the time ...