SUPER HOLLYWOOD: Mens Casual Footwear

Tuesday 17 July 2012

Mens Casual Footwear

Slip-ons are typically low, lace-less shoes. The style most commonly seen, known as a loafer or slippers in American culture, has a moccasin construction. First appearing in the mid-1930s from Norway, Aurlandskoen (Aurland Shoe), they began as casual shoes, but have increased in popularity to the point of being worn in America with city lounge suits. They are worn in many situations in a wide variety of colours and designs, often featuring tassels on the front, or metal decorations (the 'Gucci' loafer).
A less casual, earlier type of slip-on is made with side gussets (sometimes called a dress loafer). Made in the same shape as lace-up Oxfords, only lacking the laces, elasticated inserts on the side allow the shoe to be easily removed, but remain snug when worn. This cut has its greatest popularity in Britain.The Norwegians were producing leisure slippers of the moccasin style in the 1930s and began exporting them to the rest of Europe, where they were taken up by visiting Americans, and championed by the American Esquire magazine. Some photographs included with the Esquire feature were of Norwegian farmers in a cattle loafing area. The Spaulding family in New Hampshire started making shoes based on this design in the early 1930s,^[ naming them loafers, which general term for slip-on shoes remains in use in America. In 1934, G.H. Bass (a bootmaker in Wilton, Maine) started making loafers under the name Weejuns (sounding like Norwegians). The distinctive addition was a strip of leather across the saddle with a diamond cut-out. Initially only worn in the summer at home, the shoe grew in popularity in America to become a significant part of men's casual shoe wardrobe; in Europe the style has never reached the same degree of ubiquity. When American prep school students in the 1950s, wishing to make a fashion statement, took to inserting a penny into the diamond-shaped slit on their Weejuns, the name penny loafer came to be applied to this style of slip-on and has since stuck. The practice continues, especially amongst those who remain committed to a classic and refined but still scholarly appearance, such as lawyers