"Short Boots", not "Booties"

Please don't call them 'booties'. Booties are what babies wear. They're 'short boots', even if it's a more unwieldy term.

I'm planning to buy a new pair this fall, since I've been wearing my bronze Donald J. Pliners for a couple of years now. I like all three of the above styles.

The type in the first photo will, I think, be a better long term investment, since an ankle height boot is classic. They're basic black, but jazzed up with strappy cut-outs which are somewhere between dominatrix and a cursive culicue. Between the strappiness and the heel shape there's something vaguely eighties about them, but I can live with that. The heel height looks nice and walkable too.

The two styles shown in the second photo are much trendier and therefore seem far more up-to-the-minute in comparison. They'd yield greater glory now but have less staying power, so choosing them is a question of being willing to accept the trade-off. I've always paired short boots exclusively with pants and tall boots exclusively with skirts and dresses. I just don't like the hipster look of short boots with a skirt. But these ultra-low boots are practically pumps, so they might force me to reconsider my short-boots-with-pants edict. In the abstract, I prefer the gathered look on the cream pair, but the black are a way to get the style with screaming it.

First image from InStyle, August '07. Black ankle boots by Alejandro Ingelmo. Second image from Vogue, August '07. Cream boots by Christian Louboutin. Black boots by Sergio Rossi.